sentences.text: ADVENTURE I.
sentences.text: ADVENTURE
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA I. To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman.
sentences.text: A
sentences.text: SCANDAL
sentences.text: IN
sentences.text: BOHEMIA
sentences.text: I.
sentences.text: To
sentences.text: Sherlock
sentences.text: Holmes
sentences.text: she
sentences.text: is
sentences.text: always
sentences.text: THE
sentences.text: woman
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name.
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: have
sentences.text: seldom
sentences.text: heard
sentences.text: him
sentences.text: mention
sentences.text: her
sentences.text: under
sentences.text: any
sentences.text: other
sentences.text: name
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex.
sentences.text: In
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: eyes
sentences.text: she
sentences.text: eclipses
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: predominates
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: whole
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: her
sentences.text: sex
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler.
sentences.text: It
sentences.text: was
sentences.text: not
sentences.text: that
sentences.text: he
sentences.text: felt
sentences.text: any
sentences.text: emotion
sentences.text: akin
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: love
sentences.text: for
sentences.text: Irene
sentences.text: Adler
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably balanced mind.
sentences.text: All
sentences.text: emotions
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: that
sentences.text: one
sentences.text: particularly
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: were
sentences.text: abhorrent
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: cold
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: precise
sentences.text: but
sentences.text: admirably
sentences.text: balanced
sentences.text: mind
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a lover he would have placed himself in a false position.
sentences.text: He
sentences.text: was
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: take
sentences.text: it
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: most
sentences.text: perfect
sentences.text: reasoning
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: observing
sentences.text: machine
sentences.text: that
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: world
sentences.text: has
sentences.text: seen
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: but
sentences.text: as
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: lover
sentences.text: he
sentences.text: would
sentences.text: have
sentences.text: placed
sentences.text: himself
sentences.text: in
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: false
sentences.text: position
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: He never spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer.
sentences.text: He
sentences.text: never
sentences.text: spoke
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: softer
sentences.text: passions
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: save
sentences.text: with
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: gibe
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: sneer
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: They were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the veil from men's motives and actions.
sentences.text: They
sentences.text: were
sentences.text: admirable
sentences.text: things
sentences.text: for
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: observer
sentences.text: --
sentences.text: excellent
sentences.text: for
sentences.text: drawing
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: veil
sentences.text: from
sentences.text: men
sentences.text: 's
sentences.text: motives
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: actions
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: But for the trained reasoner to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which might throw a doubt upon all his mental results.
sentences.text: But
sentences.text: for
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: trained
sentences.text: reasoner
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: admit
sentences.text: such
sentences.text: intrusions
sentences.text: into
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: own
sentences.text: delicate
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: finely
sentences.text: adjusted
sentences.text: temperament
sentences.text: was
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: introduce
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: distracting
sentences.text: factor
sentences.text: which
sentences.text: might
sentences.text: throw
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: doubt
sentences.text: upon
sentences.text: all
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: mental
sentences.text: results
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: Grit in a sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a nature such as his.
sentences.text: Grit
sentences.text: in
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: sensitive
sentences.text: instrument
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: or
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: crack
sentences.text: in
sentences.text: one
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: own
sentences.text: high-power
sentences.text: lenses
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: would
sentences.text: not
sentences.text: be
sentences.text: more
sentences.text: disturbing
sentences.text: than
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: strong
sentences.text: emotion
sentences.text: in
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: nature
sentences.text: such
sentences.text: as
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: And yet there was but one woman to him, and that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable memory.
sentences.text: And
sentences.text: yet
sentences.text: there
sentences.text: was
sentences.text: but
sentences.text: one
sentences.text: woman
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: him
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: that
sentences.text: woman
sentences.text: was
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: late
sentences.text: Irene
sentences.text: Adler
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: dubious
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: questionable
sentences.text: memory
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: I had seen little of Holmes lately.
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: had
sentences.text: seen
sentences.text: little
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: Holmes
sentences.text: lately
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: My marriage had drifted us away from each other.
sentences.text: My
sentences.text: marriage
sentences.text: had
sentences.text: drifted
sentences.text: us
sentences.text: away
sentences.text: from
sentences.text: each
sentences.text: other
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: My own complete happiness, and the home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature.
sentences.text: My
sentences.text: own
sentences.text: complete
sentences.text: happiness
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: home-centred
sentences.text: interests
sentences.text: which
sentences.text: rise
sentences.text: up
sentences.text: around
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: man
sentences.text: who
sentences.text: first
sentences.text: finds
sentences.text: himself
sentences.text: master
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: own
sentences.text: establishment
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: were
sentences.text: sufficient
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: absorb
sentences.text: all
sentences.text: my
sentences.text: attention
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: while
sentences.text: Holmes
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: who
sentences.text: loathed
sentences.text: every
sentences.text: form
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: society
sentences.text: with
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: whole
sentences.text: Bohemian
sentences.text: soul
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: remained
sentences.text: in
sentences.text: our
sentences.text: lodgings
sentences.text: in
sentences.text: Baker
sentences.text: Street
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: buried
sentences.text: among
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: old
sentences.text: books
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: alternating
sentences.text: from
sentences.text: week
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: week
sentences.text: between
sentences.text: cocaine
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: ambition
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: drowsiness
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: drug
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: fierce
sentences.text: energy
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: own
sentences.text: keen
sentences.text: nature
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: He was still, as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police.
sentences.text: He
sentences.text: was
sentences.text: still
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: as
sentences.text: ever
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: deeply
sentences.text: attracted
sentences.text: by
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: study
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: crime
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: occupied
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: immense
sentences.text: faculties
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: extraordinary
sentences.text: powers
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: observation
sentences.text: in
sentences.text: following
sentences.text: out
sentences.text: those
sentences.text: clues
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: clearing
sentences.text: up
sentences.text: those
sentences.text: mysteries
sentences.text: which
sentences.text: had
sentences.text: been
sentences.text: abandoned
sentences.text: as
sentences.text: hopeless
sentences.text: by
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: official
sentences.text: police
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: From time to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland.
sentences.text: From
sentences.text: time
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: time
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: heard
sentences.text: some
sentences.text: vague
sentences.text: account
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: doings
sentences.text: :
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: summons
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: Odessa
sentences.text: in
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: case
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: Trepoff
sentences.text: murder
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: clearing
sentences.text: up
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: singular
sentences.text: tragedy
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: Atkinson
sentences.text: brothers
sentences.text: at
sentences.text: Trincomalee
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: finally
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: mission
sentences.text: which
sentences.text: he
sentences.text: had
sentences.text: accomplished
sentences.text: so
sentences.text: delicately
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: successfully
sentences.text: for
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: reigning
sentences.text: family
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: Holland
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of my former friend and companion.
sentences.text: Beyond
sentences.text: these
sentences.text: signs
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: activity
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: however
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: which
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: merely
sentences.text: shared
sentences.text: with
sentences.text: all
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: readers
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: daily
sentences.text: press
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: knew
sentences.text: little
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: my
sentences.text: former
sentences.text: friend
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: companion
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street.
sentences.text: One
sentences.text: night
sentences.text: --
sentences.text: it
sentences.text: was
sentences.text: on
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: twentieth
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: March
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: 1888
sentences.text: --
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: was
sentences.text: returning
sentences.text: from
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: journey
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: patient
sentences.text: (
sentences.text: for
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: had
sentences.text: now
sentences.text: returned
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: civil
sentences.text: practice
sentences.text: )
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: when
sentences.text: my
sentences.text: way
sentences.text: led
sentences.text: me
sentences.text: through
sentences.text: Baker
sentences.text: Street
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: As I passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers.
sentences.text: As
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: passed
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: well-remembered
sentences.text: door
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: which
sentences.text: must
sentences.text: always
sentences.text: be
sentences.text: associated
sentences.text: in
sentences.text: my
sentences.text: mind
sentences.text: with
sentences.text: my
sentences.text: wooing
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: with
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: dark
sentences.text: incidents
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: Study
sentences.text: in
sentences.text: Scarlet
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: was
sentences.text: seized
sentences.text: with
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: keen
sentences.text: desire
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: see
sentences.text: Holmes
sentences.text: again
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: know
sentences.text: how
sentences.text: he
sentences.text: was
sentences.text: employing
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: extraordinary
sentences.text: powers
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against the blind.
sentences.text: His
sentences.text: rooms
sentences.text: were
sentences.text: brilliantly
sentences.text: lit
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: even
sentences.text: as
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: looked
sentences.text: up
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: saw
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: tall
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: spare
sentences.text: figure
sentences.text: pass
sentences.text: twice
sentences.text: in
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: dark
sentences.text: silhouette
sentences.text: against
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: blind
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him.
sentences.text: He
sentences.text: was
sentences.text: pacing
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: room
sentences.text: swiftly
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: eagerly
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: with
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: head
sentences.text: sunk
sentences.text: upon
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: chest
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: hands
sentences.text: clasped
sentences.text: behind
sentences.text: him
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: To me, who knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their own story.
sentences.text: To
sentences.text: me
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: who
sentences.text: knew
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: every
sentences.text: mood
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: habit
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: attitude
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: manner
sentences.text: told
sentences.text: their
sentences.text: own
sentences.text: story
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: He was at work again.
sentences.text: He
sentences.text: was
sentences.text: at
sentences.text: work
sentences.text: again
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: He had risen out of his drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new problem.
sentences.text: He
sentences.text: had
sentences.text: risen
sentences.text: out
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: drug-created
sentences.text: dreams
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: was
sentences.text: hot
sentences.text: upon
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: scent
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: some
sentences.text: new
sentences.text: problem
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which had formerly been in part my own.
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: rang
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: bell
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: was
sentences.text: shown
sentences.text: up
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: chamber
sentences.text: which
sentences.text: had
sentences.text: formerly
sentences.text: been
sentences.text: in
sentences.text: part
sentences.text: my
sentences.text: own
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: His manner was not effusive.
sentences.text: His
sentences.text: manner
sentences.text: was
sentences.text: not
sentences.text: effusive
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: It seldom was; but he was glad, I think, to see me.
sentences.text: It
sentences.text: seldom
sentences.text: was
sentences.text: ;
sentences.text: but
sentences.text: he
sentences.text: was
sentences.text: glad
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: think
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: see
sentences.text: me
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner.
sentences.text: With
sentences.text: hardly
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: word
sentences.text: spoken
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: but
sentences.text: with
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: kindly
sentences.text: eye
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: he
sentences.text: waved
sentences.text: me
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: an
sentences.text: armchair
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: threw
sentences.text: across
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: case
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: cigars
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: indicated
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: spirit
sentences.text: case
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: gasogene
sentences.text: in
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: corner
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: Then he stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular introspective fashion.
sentences.text: Then
sentences.text: he
sentences.text: stood
sentences.text: before
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: fire
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: looked
sentences.text: me
sentences.text: over
sentences.text: in
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: singular
sentences.text: introspective
sentences.text: fashion
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: " Wedlock suits you, " he remarked.
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: Wedlock
sentences.text: suits
sentences.text: you
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: he
sentences.text: remarked
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: " I think, Watson, that you have put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you . "
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: think
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: Watson
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: that
sentences.text: you
sentences.text: have
sentences.text: put
sentences.text: on
sentences.text: seven
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: half
sentences.text: pounds
sentences.text: since
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: saw
sentences.text: you
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: " Seven! "
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: Seven
sentences.text: !
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: I answered.
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: answered
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: " Indeed, I should have thought a little more.
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: Indeed
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: should
sentences.text: have
sentences.text: thought
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: little
sentences.text: more
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: Just a trifle more, I fancy, Watson.
sentences.text: Just
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: trifle
sentences.text: more
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: fancy
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: Watson
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: And in practice again, I observe.
sentences.text: And
sentences.text: in
sentences.text: practice
sentences.text: again
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: observe
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: You did not tell me that you intended to go into harness . "
sentences.text: You
sentences.text: did
sentences.text: not
sentences.text: tell
sentences.text: me
sentences.text: that
sentences.text: you
sentences.text: intended
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: go
sentences.text: into
sentences.text: harness
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: " Then, how do you know? "
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: Then
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: how
sentences.text: do
sentences.text: you
sentences.text: know
sentences.text: ?
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: " I see it, I deduce it.
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: see
sentences.text: it
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: deduce
sentences.text: it
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: How do I know that you have been getting yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and careless servant girl? "
sentences.text: How
sentences.text: do
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: know
sentences.text: that
sentences.text: you
sentences.text: have
sentences.text: been
sentences.text: getting
sentences.text: yourself
sentences.text: very
sentences.text: wet
sentences.text: lately
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: that
sentences.text: you
sentences.text: have
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: most
sentences.text: clumsy
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: careless
sentences.text: servant
sentences.text: girl
sentences.text: ?
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: " My dear Holmes, " said I, " this is too much.
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: My
sentences.text: dear
sentences.text: Holmes
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: said
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: this
sentences.text: is
sentences.text: too
sentences.text: much
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: You would certainly have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago.
sentences.text: You
sentences.text: would
sentences.text: certainly
sentences.text: have
sentences.text: been
sentences.text: burned
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: had
sentences.text: you
sentences.text: lived
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: few
sentences.text: centuries
sentences.text: ago
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: It is true that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you deduce it.
sentences.text: It
sentences.text: is
sentences.text: true
sentences.text: that
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: had
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: country
sentences.text: walk
sentences.text: on
sentences.text: Thursday
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: came
sentences.text: home
sentences.text: in
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: dreadful
sentences.text: mess
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: but
sentences.text: as
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: have
sentences.text: changed
sentences.text: my
sentences.text: clothes
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: ca
sentences.text: n't
sentences.text: imagine
sentences.text: how
sentences.text: you
sentences.text: deduce
sentences.text: it
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it out . "
sentences.text: As
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: Mary
sentences.text: Jane
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: she
sentences.text: is
sentences.text: incorrigible
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: my
sentences.text: wife
sentences.text: has
sentences.text: given
sentences.text: her
sentences.text: notice
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: but
sentences.text: there
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: again
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: fail
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: see
sentences.text: how
sentences.text: you
sentences.text: work
sentences.text: it
sentences.text: out
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands together.
sentences.text: He
sentences.text: chuckled
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: himself
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: rubbed
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: long
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: nervous
sentences.text: hands
sentences.text: together
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: " It is simplicity itself, " said he; " my eyes tell me that on the inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts.
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: It
sentences.text: is
sentences.text: simplicity
sentences.text: itself
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: said
sentences.text: he
sentences.text: ;
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: my
sentences.text: eyes
sentences.text: tell
sentences.text: me
sentences.text: that
sentences.text: on
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: inside
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: your
sentences.text: left
sentences.text: shoe
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: just
sentences.text: where
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: firelight
sentences.text: strikes
sentences.text: it
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: leather
sentences.text: is
sentences.text: scored
sentences.text: by
sentences.text: six
sentences.text: almost
sentences.text: parallel
sentences.text: cuts
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: Obviously they have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it.
sentences.text: Obviously
sentences.text: they
sentences.text: have
sentences.text: been
sentences.text: caused
sentences.text: by
sentences.text: someone
sentences.text: who
sentences.text: has
sentences.text: very
sentences.text: carelessly
sentences.text: scraped
sentences.text: round
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: edges
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: sole
sentences.text: in
sentences.text: order
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: remove
sentences.text: crusted
sentences.text: mud
sentences.text: from
sentences.text: it
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting specimen of the London slavey.
sentences.text: Hence
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: you
sentences.text: see
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: my
sentences.text: double
sentences.text: deduction
sentences.text: that
sentences.text: you
sentences.text: had
sentences.text: been
sentences.text: out
sentences.text: in
sentences.text: vile
sentences.text: weather
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: that
sentences.text: you
sentences.text: had
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: particularly
sentences.text: malignant
sentences.text: boot-slitting
sentences.text: specimen
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: London
sentences.text: slavey
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: As to your practice, if a gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce him to be an active member of the medical profession . "
sentences.text: As
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: your
sentences.text: practice
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: if
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: gentleman
sentences.text: walks
sentences.text: into
sentences.text: my
sentences.text: rooms
sentences.text: smelling
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: iodoform
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: with
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: black
sentences.text: mark
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: nitrate
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: silver
sentences.text: upon
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: right
sentences.text: forefinger
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: bulge
sentences.text: on
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: right
sentences.text: side
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: top-hat
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: show
sentences.text: where
sentences.text: he
sentences.text: has
sentences.text: secreted
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: stethoscope
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: must
sentences.text: be
sentences.text: dull
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: indeed
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: if
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: do
sentences.text: not
sentences.text: pronounce
sentences.text: him
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: be
sentences.text: an
sentences.text: active
sentences.text: member
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: medical
sentences.text: profession
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his process of deduction.
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: could
sentences.text: not
sentences.text: help
sentences.text: laughing
sentences.text: at
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: ease
sentences.text: with
sentences.text: which
sentences.text: he
sentences.text: explained
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: process
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: deduction
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: " When I hear you give your reasons, " I remarked, " the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you explain your process.
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: When
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: hear
sentences.text: you
sentences.text: give
sentences.text: your
sentences.text: reasons
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: remarked
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: thing
sentences.text: always
sentences.text: appears
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: me
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: be
sentences.text: so
sentences.text: ridiculously
sentences.text: simple
sentences.text: that
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: could
sentences.text: easily
sentences.text: do
sentences.text: it
sentences.text: myself
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: though
sentences.text: at
sentences.text: each
sentences.text: successive
sentences.text: instance
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: your
sentences.text: reasoning
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: am
sentences.text: baffled
sentences.text: until
sentences.text: you
sentences.text: explain
sentences.text: your
sentences.text: process
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: And yet I believe that my eyes are as good as yours . "
sentences.text: And
sentences.text: yet
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: believe
sentences.text: that
sentences.text: my
sentences.text: eyes
sentences.text: are
sentences.text: as
sentences.text: good
sentences.text: as
sentences.text: yours
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: " Quite so, " he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing himself down into an armchair.
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: Quite
sentences.text: so
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: he
sentences.text: answered
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: lighting
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: cigarette
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: throwing
sentences.text: himself
sentences.text: down
sentences.text: into
sentences.text: an
sentences.text: armchair
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: " You see, but you do not observe.
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: You
sentences.text: see
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: but
sentences.text: you
sentences.text: do
sentences.text: not
sentences.text: observe
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: The distinction is clear.
sentences.text: The
sentences.text: distinction
sentences.text: is
sentences.text: clear
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: For example, you have frequently seen the steps which lead up from the hall to this room . "
sentences.text: For
sentences.text: example
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: you
sentences.text: have
sentences.text: frequently
sentences.text: seen
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: steps
sentences.text: which
sentences.text: lead
sentences.text: up
sentences.text: from
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: hall
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: this
sentences.text: room
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: " Frequently . "
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: Frequently
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: " How often? "
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: How
sentences.text: often
sentences.text: ?
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: " Well, some hundreds of times . "
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: Well
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: some
sentences.text: hundreds
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: times
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: " Then how many are there? "
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: Then
sentences.text: how
sentences.text: many
sentences.text: are
sentences.text: there
sentences.text: ?
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: " How many?
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: How
sentences.text: many
sentences.text: ?
sentences.text: I don't know . "
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: do
sentences.text: n't
sentences.text: know
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: " Quite so!
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: Quite
sentences.text: so
sentences.text: !
sentences.text: You have not observed.
sentences.text: You
sentences.text: have
sentences.text: not
sentences.text: observed
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: And yet you have seen.
sentences.text: And
sentences.text: yet
sentences.text: you
sentences.text: have
sentences.text: seen
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: That is just my point.
sentences.text: That
sentences.text: is
sentences.text: just
sentences.text: my
sentences.text: point
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, because I have both seen and observed.
sentences.text: Now
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: know
sentences.text: that
sentences.text: there
sentences.text: are
sentences.text: seventeen
sentences.text: steps
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: because
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: have
sentences.text: both
sentences.text: seen
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: observed
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: By-the-way, since you are interested in these little problems, and since you are good enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you may be interested in this . "
sentences.text: By-the-way
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: since
sentences.text: you
sentences.text: are
sentences.text: interested
sentences.text: in
sentences.text: these
sentences.text: little
sentences.text: problems
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: since
sentences.text: you
sentences.text: are
sentences.text: good
sentences.text: enough
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: chronicle
sentences.text: one
sentences.text: or
sentences.text: two
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: my
sentences.text: trifling
sentences.text: experiences
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: you
sentences.text: may
sentences.text: be
sentences.text: interested
sentences.text: in
sentences.text: this
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: He threw over a sheet of thick, pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table.
sentences.text: He
sentences.text: threw
sentences.text: over
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: sheet
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: thick
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: pink-tinted
sentences.text: note-paper
sentences.text: which
sentences.text: had
sentences.text: been
sentences.text: lying
sentences.text: open
sentences.text: upon
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: table
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: " It came by the last post, " said he.
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: It
sentences.text: came
sentences.text: by
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: last
sentences.text: post
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: said
sentences.text: he
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: " Read it aloud . "
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: Read
sentences.text: it
sentences.text: aloud
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: The note was undated, and without either signature or address.
sentences.text: The
sentences.text: note
sentences.text: was
sentences.text: undated
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: without
sentences.text: either
sentences.text: signature
sentences.text: or
sentences.text: address
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: " There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight o'clock, " it said, " a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a matter of the very deepest moment.
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: There
sentences.text: will
sentences.text: call
sentences.text: upon
sentences.text: you
sentences.text: to-night
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: at
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: quarter
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: eight
sentences.text: o'clock
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: it
sentences.text: said
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: gentleman
sentences.text: who
sentences.text: desires
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: consult
sentences.text: you
sentences.text: upon
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: matter
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: very
sentences.text: deepest
sentences.text: moment
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: Your recent services to one of the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which can hardly be exaggerated.
sentences.text: Your
sentences.text: recent
sentences.text: services
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: one
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: royal
sentences.text: houses
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: Europe
sentences.text: have
sentences.text: shown
sentences.text: that
sentences.text: you
sentences.text: are
sentences.text: one
sentences.text: who
sentences.text: may
sentences.text: safely
sentences.text: be
sentences.text: trusted
sentences.text: with
sentences.text: matters
sentences.text: which
sentences.text: are
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: an
sentences.text: importance
sentences.text: which
sentences.text: can
sentences.text: hardly
sentences.text: be
sentences.text: exaggerated
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: This account of you we have from all quarters received.
sentences.text: This
sentences.text: account
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: you
sentences.text: we
sentences.text: have
sentences.text: from
sentences.text: all
sentences.text: quarters
sentences.text: received
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask . "
sentences.text: Be
sentences.text: in
sentences.text: your
sentences.text: chamber
sentences.text: then
sentences.text: at
sentences.text: that
sentences.text: hour
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: do
sentences.text: not
sentences.text: take
sentences.text: it
sentences.text: amiss
sentences.text: if
sentences.text: your
sentences.text: visitor
sentences.text: wear
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: mask
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: " This is indeed a mystery, " I remarked.
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: This
sentences.text: is
sentences.text: indeed
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: mystery
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: remarked
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: " What do you imagine that it means? "
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: What
sentences.text: do
sentences.text: you
sentences.text: imagine
sentences.text: that
sentences.text: it
sentences.text: means
sentences.text: ?
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: " I have no data yet.
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: have
sentences.text: no
sentences.text: data
sentences.text: yet
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.
sentences.text: It
sentences.text: is
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: capital
sentences.text: mistake
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: theorize
sentences.text: before
sentences.text: one
sentences.text: has
sentences.text: data
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.
sentences.text: Insensibly
sentences.text: one
sentences.text: begins
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: twist
sentences.text: facts
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: suit
sentences.text: theories
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: instead
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: theories
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: suit
sentences.text: facts
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: But the note itself.
sentences.text: But
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: note
sentences.text: itself
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: What do you deduce from it? "
sentences.text: What
sentences.text: do
sentences.text: you
sentences.text: deduce
sentences.text: from
sentences.text: it
sentences.text: ?
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was written.
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: carefully
sentences.text: examined
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: writing
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: paper
sentences.text: upon
sentences.text: which
sentences.text: it
sentences.text: was
sentences.text: written
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: " The man who wrote it was presumably well to do, " I remarked, endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes.
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: The
sentences.text: man
sentences.text: who
sentences.text: wrote
sentences.text: it
sentences.text: was
sentences.text: presumably
sentences.text: well
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: do
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: remarked
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: endeavouring
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: imitate
sentences.text: my
sentences.text: companion
sentences.text: 's
sentences.text: processes
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: " Such paper could not be bought under half a crown a packet.
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: Such
sentences.text: paper
sentences.text: could
sentences.text: not
sentences.text: be
sentences.text: bought
sentences.text: under
sentences.text: half
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: crown
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: packet
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: It is peculiarly strong and stiff . "
sentences.text: It
sentences.text: is
sentences.text: peculiarly
sentences.text: strong
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: stiff
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: " Peculiar--that is the very word, " said Holmes.
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: Peculiar
sentences.text: --
sentences.text: that
sentences.text: is
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: very
sentences.text: word
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: said
sentences.text: Holmes
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: " It is not an English paper at all.
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: It
sentences.text: is
sentences.text: not
sentences.text: an
sentences.text: English
sentences.text: paper
sentences.text: at
sentences.text: all
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: Hold it up to the light . "
sentences.text: Hold
sentences.text: it
sentences.text: up
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: light
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: I did so, and saw a large " E " with a small " g, " a " P, " and a large " G " with a small " t " woven into the texture of the paper.
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: did
sentences.text: so
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: saw
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: large
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: E
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: with
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: small
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: g
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: P
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: large
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: G
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: with
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: small
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: t
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: woven
sentences.text: into
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: texture
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: paper
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: " What do you make of that? " asked Holmes.
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: What
sentences.text: do
sentences.text: you
sentences.text: make
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: that
sentences.text: ?
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: asked
sentences.text: Holmes
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: " The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather . "
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: The
sentences.text: name
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: maker
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: no
sentences.text: doubt
sentences.text: ;
sentences.text: or
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: monogram
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: rather
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: " Not at all.
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: Not
sentences.text: at
sentences.text: all
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: The' G' with the small' t' stands for' Gesellschaft,' which is the German for' Company.'
sentences.text: The
sentences.text: '
sentences.text: G
sentences.text: '
sentences.text: with
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: small
sentences.text: '
sentences.text: t
sentences.text: '
sentences.text: stands
sentences.text: for
sentences.text: '
sentences.text: Gesellschaft
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: '
sentences.text: which
sentences.text: is
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: German
sentences.text: for
sentences.text: '
sentences.text: Company
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: '
sentences.text: It is a customary contraction like our' Co.' ' P,' of course, stands for' Papier.'
sentences.text: It
sentences.text: is
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: customary
sentences.text: contraction
sentences.text: like
sentences.text: our
sentences.text: '
sentences.text: Co.
sentences.text: '
sentences.text: '
sentences.text: P
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: '
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: course
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: stands
sentences.text: for
sentences.text: '
sentences.text: Papier
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: '
sentences.text: Now for the' Eg.'
sentences.text: Now
sentences.text: for
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: '
sentences.text: Eg
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: '
sentences.text: Let us glance at our Continental Gazetteer . "
sentences.text: Let
sentences.text: us
sentences.text: glance
sentences.text: at
sentences.text: our
sentences.text: Continental
sentences.text: Gazetteer
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves.
sentences.text: He
sentences.text: took
sentences.text: down
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: heavy
sentences.text: brown
sentences.text: volume
sentences.text: from
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: shelves
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: " Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria.
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: Eglow
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: Eglonitz
sentences.text: --
sentences.text: here
sentences.text: we
sentences.text: are
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: Egria
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: It is in a German-speaking country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad.
sentences.text: It
sentences.text: is
sentences.text: in
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: German-speaking
sentences.text: country
sentences.text: --
sentences.text: in
sentences.text: Bohemia
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: not
sentences.text: far
sentences.text: from
sentences.text: Carlsbad
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: ' Remarkable as being the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous glass-factories and paper-mills.'
sentences.text: '
sentences.text: Remarkable
sentences.text: as
sentences.text: being
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: scene
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: death
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: Wallenstein
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: for
sentences.text: its
sentences.text: numerous
sentences.text: glass-factories
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: paper-mills
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: '
sentences.text: Ha, ha, my boy, what do you make of that? "
sentences.text: Ha
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: ha
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: my
sentences.text: boy
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: what
sentences.text: do
sentences.text: you
sentences.text: make
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: that
sentences.text: ?
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue triumphant cloud from his cigarette.
sentences.text: His
sentences.text: eyes
sentences.text: sparkled
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: he
sentences.text: sent
sentences.text: up
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: great
sentences.text: blue
sentences.text: triumphant
sentences.text: cloud
sentences.text: from
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: cigarette
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: " The paper was made in Bohemia, " I said.
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: The
sentences.text: paper
sentences.text: was
sentences.text: made
sentences.text: in
sentences.text: Bohemia
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: said
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: " Precisely.
sentences.text: "
sentences.text: Precisely
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: And the man who wrote the note is a German.
sentences.text: And
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: man
sentences.text: who
sentences.text: wrote
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: note
sentences.text: is
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: German
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: Do you note the peculiar construction of the sentence --' This account of you we have from all quarters received.'
sentences.text: Do
sentences.text: you
sentences.text: note
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: peculiar
sentences.text: construction
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: sentence
sentences.text: --
sentences.text: '
sentences.text: This
sentences.text: account
sentences.text: of
sentences.text: you
sentences.text: we
sentences.text: have
sentences.text: from
sentences.text: all
sentences.text: quarters
sentences.text: received
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: '
sentences.text: A Frenchman or Russian could not have written that.
sentences.text: A
sentences.text: Frenchman
sentences.text: or
sentences.text: Russian
sentences.text: could
sentences.text: not
sentences.text: have
sentences.text: written
sentences.text: that
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: It is the German who is so uncourteous to his verbs.
sentences.text: It
sentences.text: is
sentences.text: the
sentences.text: German
sentences.text: who
sentences.text: is
sentences.text: so
sentences.text: uncourteous
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: verbs
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: It only remains, therefore, to discover what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and prefers wearing a mask to showing his face.
sentences.text: It
sentences.text: only
sentences.text: remains
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: therefore
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: discover
sentences.text: what
sentences.text: is
sentences.text: wanted
sentences.text: by
sentences.text: this
sentences.text: German
sentences.text: who
sentences.text: writes
sentences.text: upon
sentences.text: Bohemian
sentences.text: paper
sentences.text: and
sentences.text: prefers
sentences.text: wearing
sentences.text: a
sentences.text: mask
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: showing
sentences.text: his
sentences.text: face
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: And here he comes, if I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts . "
sentences.text: And
sentences.text: here
sentences.text: he
sentences.text: comes
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: if
sentences.text: I
sentences.text: am
sentences.text: not
sentences.text: mistaken
sentences.text: ,
sentences.text: to
sentences.text: resolve
sentences.text: all
sentences.text: our
sentences.text: doubts
sentences.text: .
sentences.text: "
text: ADVENTURE I. A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA
  
  I.
  
  To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard
  him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses
  and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt
  any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that
  one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but
  admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect
  reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a
  lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never
  spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They
  were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the
  veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner
  to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely
  adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which
  might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a
  sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power
  lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a
  nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and
  that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable
  memory.
  
  I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us
  away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the
  home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first
  finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to
  absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of
  society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in
  Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from
  week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the
  drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still,
  as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his
  immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in
  following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which
  had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time
  to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons
  to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up
  of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee,
  and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so
  delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland.
  Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely
  shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of
  my former friend and companion.
  
  One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was
  returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to
  civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I
  passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated
  in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the
  Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes
  again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers.
  His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw
  his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against
  the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head
  sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who
  knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their
  own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his
  drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new
  problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which
  had formerly been in part my own.
  
  His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I
  think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly
  eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars,
  and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he
  stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular
  introspective fashion.
  
  "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have
  put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you."
  
  "Seven!" I answered.
  
  "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more,
  I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not
  tell me that you intended to go into harness."
  
  "Then, how do you know?"
  
  "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting
  yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and
  careless servant girl?"
  
  "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly
  have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true
  that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful
  mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you
  deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has
  given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it
  out."
  
  He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands
  together.
  
  "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the
  inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it,
  the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they
  have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round
  the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it.
  Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile
  weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting
  specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a
  gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black
  mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge
  on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted
  his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce
  him to be an active member of the medical profession."
  
  I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his
  process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I
  remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously
  simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each
  successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you
  explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good
  as yours."
  
  "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing
  himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe.
  The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen
  the steps which lead up from the hall to this room."
  
  "Frequently."
  
  "How often?"
  
  "Well, some hundreds of times."
  
  "Then how many are there?"
  
  "How many? I don't know."
  
  "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is
  just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps,
  because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are
  interested in these little problems, and since you are good
  enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you
  may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick,
  pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table.
  "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud."
  
  The note was undated, and without either signature or address.
  
  "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight
  o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a
  matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of
  the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may
  safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which
  can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all
  quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do
  not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask."
  
  "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that
  it means?"
  
  "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before
  one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit
  theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself.
  What do you deduce from it?"
  
  I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was
  written.
  
  "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked,
  endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper
  could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly
  strong and stiff."
  
  "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an
  English paper at all. Hold it up to the light."
  
  I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a
  large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper.
  
  "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes.
  
  "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather."
  
  "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for
  'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a
  customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for
  'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental
  Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves.
  "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking
  country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being
  the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous
  glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you
  make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue
  triumphant cloud from his cigarette.
  
  "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said.
  
  "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you
  note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of
  you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian
  could not have written that. It is the German who is so
  uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover
  what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and
  prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if
  I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts."
  
  As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and
  grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the
  bell. Holmes whistled.
  
  "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing
  out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of
  beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in
  this case, Watson, if there is nothing else."
  
  "I think that I had better go, Holmes."
  
  "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my
  Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity
  to miss it."
  
  "But your client--"
  
  "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he
  comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best
  attention."
  
  A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and
  in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there
  was a loud and authoritative tap.
  
  "Come in!" said Holmes.
  
  A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six
  inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His
  dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked
  upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed
  across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while
  the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined
  with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch
  which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended
  halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with
  rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence
  which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a
  broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper
  part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black
  vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment,
  for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower
  part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character,
  with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive
  of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy.
  
  "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a
  strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He
  looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to
  address.
  
  "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and
  colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me
  in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?"
  
  "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman.
  I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour
  and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most
  extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate
  with you alone."
  
  I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me
  back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say
  before this gentleman anything which you may say to me."
  
  The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said
  he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at
  the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At
  present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it
  may have an influence upon European history."
  
  "I promise," said Holmes.
  
  "And I."
  
  "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The
  august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to
  you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have
  just called myself is not exactly my own."
  
  "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly.
  
  "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution
  has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense
  scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of
  Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House
  of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia."
  
  "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself
  down in his armchair and closing his eyes.
  
  Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid,
  lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him
  as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe.
  Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his
  gigantic client.
  
  "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he
  remarked, "I should be better able to advise you."
  
  The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in
  uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he
  tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You
  are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to
  conceal it?"
  
  "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken
  before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich
  Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and
  hereditary King of Bohemia."
  
  "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down
  once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you
  can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in
  my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not
  confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I
  have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting
  you."
  
  "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more.
  
  "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a
  lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known
  adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you."
  
  "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without
  opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of
  docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it
  was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not
  at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography
  sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a
  staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea
  fishes.
  
  "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year
  1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera
  of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in
  London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled
  with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and
  is now desirous of getting those letters back."
  
  "Precisely so. But how--"
  
  "Was there a secret marriage?"
  
  "None."
  
  "No legal papers or certificates?"
  
  "None."
  
  "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should
  produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is
  she to prove their authenticity?"
  
  "There is the writing."
  
  "Pooh, pooh! Forgery."
  
  "My private note-paper."
  
  "Stolen."
  
  "My own seal."
  
  "Imitated."
  
  "My photograph."
  
  "Bought."
  
  "We were both in the photograph."
  
  "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an
  indiscretion."
  
  "I was mad--insane."
  
  "You have compromised yourself seriously."
  
  "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now."
  
  "It must be recovered."
  
  "We have tried and failed."
  
  "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought."
  
  "She will not sell."
  
  "Stolen, then."
  
  "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked
  her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice
  she has been waylaid. There has been no result."
  
  "No sign of it?"
  
  "Absolutely none."
  
  Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he.
  
  "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully.
  
  "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the
  photograph?"
  
  "To ruin me."
  
  "But how?"
  
  "I am about to be married."
  
  "So I have heard."
  
  "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the
  King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her
  family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a
  doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end."
  
  "And Irene Adler?"
  
  "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I
  know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul
  of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and
  the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry
  another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not
  go--none."
  
  "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?"
  
  "I am sure."
  
  "And why?"
  
  "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the
  betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday."
  
  "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That
  is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to
  look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in
  London for the present?"
  
  "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the
  Count Von Kramm."
  
  "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress."
  
  "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety."
  
  "Then, as to money?"
  
  "You have carte blanche."
  
  "Absolutely?"
  
  "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom
  to have that photograph."
  
  "And for present expenses?"
  
  The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak
  and laid it on the table.
  
  "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in
  notes," he said.
  
  Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and
  handed it to him.
  
  "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked.
  
  "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood."
  
  Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the
  photograph a cabinet?"
  
  "It was."
  
  "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon
  have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added,
  as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If
  you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three
  o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you."
  
  
  II.
  
  At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had
  not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the
  house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down
  beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him,
  however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his
  inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and
  strange features which were associated with the two crimes which
  I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the
  exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own.
  Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my
  friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of
  a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a
  pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the
  quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most
  inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable
  success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to
  enter into my head.
  
  It was close upon four before the door opened, and a
  drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an
  inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room.
  Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of
  disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it
  was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he
  emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old.
  Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in
  front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes.
  
  "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again
  until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the
  chair.
  
  "What is it?"
  
  "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I
  employed my morning, or what I ended by doing."
  
  "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the
  habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler."
  
  "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you,
  however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this
  morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a
  wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of
  them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found
  Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but
  built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock
  to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well
  furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those
  preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open.
  Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window
  could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round
  it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without
  noting anything else of interest.
  
  "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that
  there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the
  garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses,
  and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two
  fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire
  about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in
  the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but
  whose biographies I was compelled to listen to."
  
  "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked.
  
  "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is
  the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the
  Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts,
  drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for
  dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings.
  Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark,
  handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and
  often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See
  the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him
  home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him.
  When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up
  and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan
  of campaign.
  
  "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the
  matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the
  relation between them, and what the object of his repeated
  visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the
  former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his
  keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this
  question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony
  Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the
  Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my
  inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to
  let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the
  situation."
  
  "I am following you closely," I answered.
  
  "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab
  drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a
  remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently
  the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a
  great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the
  maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly
  at home.
  
  "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch
  glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and
  down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see
  nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than
  before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from
  his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he
  shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to
  the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if
  you do it in twenty minutes!'
  
  "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do
  well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau,
  the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under
  his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of
  the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall
  door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment,
  but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for.
  
  "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a
  sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.'
  
  "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing
  whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her
  landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked
  twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could
  object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign
  if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to
  twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind.
  
  "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the
  others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their
  steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid
  the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there
  save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who
  seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three
  standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side
  aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church.
  Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to
  me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards
  me.
  
  "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!'
  
  "'What then?' I asked.
  
  "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.'
  
  "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was
  I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear,
  and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally
  assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to
  Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and
  there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady
  on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was
  the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my
  life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just
  now. It seems that there had been some informality about their
  license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them
  without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance
  saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in
  search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean
  to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion."
  
  "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what
  then?"
  
  "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if
  the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate
  very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church
  door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and
  she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as
  usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove
  away in different directions, and I went off to make my own
  arrangements."
  
  "Which are?"
  
  "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the
  bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to
  be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want
  your co-operation."
  
  "I shall be delighted."
  
  "You don't mind breaking the law?"
  
  "Not in the least."
  
  "Nor running a chance of arrest?"
  
  "Not in a good cause."
  
  "Oh, the cause is excellent!"
  
  "Then I am your man."
  
  "I was sure that I might rely on you."
  
  "But what is it you wish?"
  
  "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to
  you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that
  our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I
  have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must
  be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns
  from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her."
  
  "And what then?"
  
  "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to
  occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must
  not interfere, come what may. You understand?"
  
  "I am to be neutral?"
  
  "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small
  unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being
  conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the
  sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close
  to that open window."
  
  "Yes."
  
  "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you."
  
  "Yes."
  
  "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what
  I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of
  fire. You quite follow me?"
  
  "Entirely."
  
  "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped
  roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket,
  fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting.
  Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire,
  it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then
  walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten
  minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?"
  
  "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you,
  and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry
  of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street."
  
  "Precisely."
  
  "Then you may entirely rely on me."
  
  "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I
  prepare for the new role I have to play."
  
  He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in
  the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist
  clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white
  tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and
  benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have
  equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His
  expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every
  fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as
  science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in
  crime.
  
  It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still
  wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in
  Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just
  being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge,
  waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such
  as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description,
  but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On
  the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was
  remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men
  smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his
  wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and
  several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with
  cigars in their mouths.
  
  "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of
  the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The
  photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are
  that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey
  Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his
  princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the
  photograph?"
  
  "Where, indeed?"
  
  "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is
  cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's
  dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid
  and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We
  may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her."
  
  "Where, then?"
  
  "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But
  I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive,
  and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it
  over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but
  she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be
  brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she
  had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she
  can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house."
  
  "But it has twice been burgled."
  
  "Pshaw! They did not know how to look."
  
  "But how will you look?"
  
  "I will not look."
  
  "What then?"
  
  "I will get her to show me."
  
  "But she will refuse."
  
  "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is
  her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter."
  
  As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round
  the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which
  rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of
  the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in
  the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another
  loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce
  quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who
  took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder,
  who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and
  in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was
  the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who
  struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes
  dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached
  her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood
  running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to
  their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while
  a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle
  without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to
  attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her,
  had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her
  superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking
  back into the street.
  
  "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked.
  
  "He is dead," cried several voices.
  
  "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be
  gone before you can get him to hospital."
  
  "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the
  lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a
  gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now."
  
  "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?"
  
  "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable
  sofa. This way, please!"
  
  Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out
  in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings
  from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the
  blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay
  upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with
  compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I
  know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life
  than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was
  conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited
  upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery
  to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted
  to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under
  my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are
  but preventing her from injuring another.
  
  Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man
  who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the
  window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the
  signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The
  word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of
  spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and
  servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds
  of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I
  caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice
  of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm.
  Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner
  of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my
  friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar.
  He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we
  had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the
  Edgeware Road.
  
  "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could
  have been better. It is all right."
  
  "You have the photograph?"
  
  "I know where it is."
  
  "And how did you find out?"
  
  "She showed me, as I told you she would."
  
  "I am still in the dark."
  
  "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter
  was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the
  street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening."
  
  "I guessed as much."
  
  "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in
  the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand
  to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick."
  
  "That also I could fathom."
  
  "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else
  could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room
  which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was
  determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for
  air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your
  chance."
  
  "How did that help you?"
  
  "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on
  fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she
  values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have
  more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the
  Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in
  the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby;
  an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to
  me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious
  to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it.
  The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were
  enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The
  photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the
  right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a
  glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it
  was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed
  from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making
  my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to
  attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had
  come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to
  wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all."
  
  "And now?" I asked.
  
  "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King
  to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be
  shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is
  probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the
  photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain
  it with his own hands."
  
  "And when will you call?"
  
  "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall
  have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage
  may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to
  the King without delay."
  
  We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was
  searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said:
  
  "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes."
  
  There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the
  greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had
  hurried by.
  
  "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the
  dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have
  been."
  
  
  III.
  
  I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our
  toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed
  into the room.
  
  "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by
  either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face.
  
  "Not yet."
  
  "But you have hopes?"
  
  "I have hopes."
  
  "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone."
  
  "We must have a cab."
  
  "No, my brougham is waiting."
  
  "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off
  once more for Briony Lodge.
  
  "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes.
  
  "Married! When?"
  
  "Yesterday."
  
  "But to whom?"
  
  "To an English lawyer named Norton."
  
  "But she could not love him."
  
  "I am in hopes that she does."
  
  "And why in hopes?"
  
  "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future
  annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your
  Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason
  why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan."
  
  "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own
  station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a
  moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in
  Serpentine Avenue.
  
  The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood
  upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped
  from the brougham.
  
  "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she.
  
  "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a
  questioning and rather startled gaze.
  
  "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She
  left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing
  Cross for the Continent."
  
  "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and
  surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?"
  
  "Never to return."
  
  "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost."
  
  "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the
  drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was
  scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and
  open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before
  her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small
  sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a
  photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler
  herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to
  "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend
  tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at
  midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way:
  
  "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You
  took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a
  suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I
  began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had
  been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly
  be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this,
  you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became
  suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind
  old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress
  myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage
  of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to
  watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call
  them, and came down just as you departed.
  
  "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was
  really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock
  Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and
  started for the Temple to see my husband.
  
  "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by
  so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when
  you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in
  peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may
  do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly
  wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a
  weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might
  take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to
  possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes,
  
                                        "Very truly yours,
                                     "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER."
  
  "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when
  we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick
  and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen?
  Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?"
  
  "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a
  very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am
  sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business
  to a more successful conclusion."
  
  "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be
  more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The
  photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire."
  
  "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so."
  
  "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can
  reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from
  his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand.
  
  "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more
  highly," said Holmes.
  
  "You have but to name it."
  
  "This photograph!"
  
  The King stared at him in amazement.
  
  "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it."
  
  "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the
  matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He
  bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the
  King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his
  chambers.
  
  And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom
  of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were
  beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the
  cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And
  when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her
  photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman.
  
  
  
  ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE
  
  I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the
  autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a
  very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair.
  With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when
  Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door
  behind me.
  
  "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear
  Watson," he said cordially.
  
  "I was afraid that you were engaged."
  
  "So I am. Very much so."
  
  "Then I can wait in the next room."
  
  "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and
  helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no
  doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also."
  
  The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of
  greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small
  fat-encircled eyes.
  
  "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and
  putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in
  judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love
  of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum
  routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by
  the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you
  will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own
  little adventures."
  
  "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I
  observed.
  
  "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we
  went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary
  Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary
  combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more
  daring than any effort of the imagination."
  
  "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting."
  
  "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my
  view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you
  until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to
  be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call
  upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to
  be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some
  time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique
  things are very often connected not with the larger but with the
  smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for
  doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I
  have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present
  case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is
  certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to.
  Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to
  recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend
  Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the
  peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every
  possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some
  slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide
  myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my
  memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the
  facts are, to the best of my belief, unique."
  
  The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some
  little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the
  inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the
  advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper
  flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and
  endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the
  indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance.
  
  I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor
  bore every mark of being an average commonplace British
  tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey
  shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat,
  unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy
  Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as
  an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a
  wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether,
  look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save
  his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and
  discontent upon his features.
  
  Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook
  his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances.
  "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual
  labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has
  been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of
  writing lately, I can deduce nothing else."
  
  Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger
  upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion.
  
  "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr.
  Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did
  manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's
  carpenter."
  
  "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger
  than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more
  developed."
  
  "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?"
  
  "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that,
  especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you
  use an arc-and-compass breastpin."
  
  "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?"
  
  "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for
  five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the
  elbow where you rest it upon the desk?"
  
  "Well, but China?"
  
  "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right
  wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small
  study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature
  of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a
  delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I
  see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter
  becomes even more simple."
  
  Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I
  thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see
  that there was nothing in it, after all."
  
  "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake
  in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my
  poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I
  am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?"
  
  "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger
  planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began
  it all. You just read it for yourself, sir."
  
  I took the paper from him and read as follows:
  
  "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late
  Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now
  another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a
  salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All
  red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age
  of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at
  eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7
  Pope's Court, Fleet Street."
  
  "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice
  read over the extraordinary announcement.
  
  Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when
  in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?"
  said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us
  all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this
  advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note,
  Doctor, of the paper and the date."
  
  "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months
  ago."
  
  "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?"
  
  "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock
  Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small
  pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a
  very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than
  just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants,
  but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but
  that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the
  business."
  
  "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes.
  
  "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth,
  either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter
  assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better
  himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after
  all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?"
  
  "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who
  comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience
  among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is
  not as remarkable as your advertisement."
  
  "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a
  fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought
  to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar
  like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his
  main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice
  in him."
  
  "He is still with you, I presume?"
  
  "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple
  cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the
  house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very
  quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads
  and pay our debts, if we do nothing more.
  
  "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement.
  Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight
  weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says:
  
  "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.'
  
  "'Why that?' I asks.
  
  "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the
  Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who
  gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than
  there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what
  to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's
  a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.'
  
  "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a
  very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of
  my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting
  my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what
  was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news.
  
  "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he
  asked with his eyes open.
  
  "'Never.'
  
  "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one
  of the vacancies.'
  
  "'And what are they worth?' I asked.
  
  "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight,
  and it need not interfere very much with one's other
  occupations.'
  
  "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears,
  for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an
  extra couple of hundred would have been very handy.
  
  "'Tell me all about it,' said I.
  
  "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for
  yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address
  where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out,
  the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah
  Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself
  red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men;
  so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous
  fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the
  interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of
  that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to
  do.'
  
  "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who
  would apply.'
  
  "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is
  really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had
  started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the
  old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your
  applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but
  real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr.
  Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be
  worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a
  few hundred pounds.'
  
  "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves,
  that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed
  to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I
  stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent
  Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might
  prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for
  the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to
  have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for
  the address that was given us in the advertisement.
  
  "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From
  north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in
  his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement.
  Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court
  looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought
  there were so many in the whole country as were brought together
  by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they
  were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay;
  but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real
  vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I
  would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear
  of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and
  pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up
  to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream
  upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back
  dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found
  ourselves in the office."
  
  "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked
  Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge
  pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement."
  
  "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs
  and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that
  was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate
  as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in
  them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem
  to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn
  came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of
  the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he
  might have a private word with us.
  
  "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is
  willing to fill a vacancy in the League.'
  
  "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has
  every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so
  fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and
  gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he
  plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my
  success.
  
  "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will,
  however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.'
  With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I
  yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as
  he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we
  have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and
  once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which
  would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the
  window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the
  vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below,
  and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there
  was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the
  manager.
  
  "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of
  the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are
  you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?'
  
  "I answered that I had not.
  
  "His face fell immediately.
  
  "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am
  sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the
  propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their
  maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a
  bachelor.'
  
  "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was
  not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for
  a few minutes he said that it would be all right.
  
  "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be
  fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a
  head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your
  new duties?'
  
  "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,'
  said I.
  
  "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding.
  'I should be able to look after that for you.'
  
  "'What would be the hours?' I asked.
  
  "'Ten to two.'
  
  "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr.
  Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just
  before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in
  the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man,
  and that he would see to anything that turned up.
  
  "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?'
  
  "'Is 4 pounds a week.'
  
  "'And the work?'
  
  "'Is purely nominal.'
  
  "'What do you call purely nominal?'
  
  "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the
  building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole
  position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You
  don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office
  during that time.'
  
  "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,'
  said I.
  
  "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness
  nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose
  your billet.'
  
  "'And the work?'
  
  "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first
  volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and
  blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be
  ready to-morrow?'
  
  "'Certainly,' I answered.
  
  "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you
  once more on the important position which you have been fortunate
  enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with
  my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased
  at my own good fortune.
  
  "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in
  low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the
  whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its
  object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past
  belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay
  such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the
  'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to
  cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the
  whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look
  at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a
  quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for
  Pope's Court.
  
  "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as
  possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross
  was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off
  upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from
  time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he
  bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had
  written, and locked the door of the office after me.
  
  "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the
  manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my
  week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week
  after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I
  left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only
  once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at
  all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an
  instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet
  was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk
  the loss of it.
  
  "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about
  Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and
  hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very
  long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly
  filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole
  business came to an end."
  
  "To an end?"
  
  "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as
  usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a
  little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the
  panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself."
  
  He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet
  of note-paper. It read in this fashion:
  
                    THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE
  
                             IS
  
                          DISSOLVED.
  
                       October 9, 1890.
  
  Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the
  rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so
  completely overtopped every other consideration that we both
  burst out into a roar of laughter.
  
  "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our
  client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can
  do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere."
  
  "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from
  which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for
  the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you
  will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it.
  Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the
  door?"
  
  "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called
  at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything
  about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant
  living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me
  what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had
  never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan
  Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him.
  
  "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.'
  
  "'What, the red-headed man?'
  
  "'Yes.'
  
  "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor
  and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new
  premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.'
  
  "'Where could I find him?'
  
  "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17
  King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.'
  
  "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was
  a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever
  heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross."
  
  "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes.
  
  "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my
  assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say
  that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite
  good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place
  without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough
  to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right
  away to you."
  
  "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an
  exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it.
  From what you have told me I think that it is possible that
  graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear."
  
  "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four
  pound a week."
  
  "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do
  not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary
  league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some
  30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have
  gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have
  lost nothing by them."
  
  "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are,
  and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a
  prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it
  cost them two and thirty pounds."
  
  "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first,
  one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who
  first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he
  been with you?"
  
  "About a month then."
  
  "How did he come?"
  
  "In answer to an advertisement."
  
  "Was he the only applicant?"
  
  "No, I had a dozen."
  
  "Why did you pick him?"
  
  "Because he was handy and would come cheap."
  
  "At half-wages, in fact."
  
  "Yes."
  
  "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?"
  
  "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face,
  though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon
  his forehead."
  
  Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought
  as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are
  pierced for earrings?"
  
  "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he
  was a lad."
  
  "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still
  with you?"
  
  "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him."
  
  "And has your business been attended to in your absence?"
  
  "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a
  morning."
  
  "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an
  opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is
  Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion."
  
  "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what
  do you make of it all?"
  
  "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most
  mysterious business."
  
  "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less
  mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless
  crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is
  the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this
  matter."
  
  "What are you going to do, then?" I asked.
  
  "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I
  beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled
  himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his
  hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his
  black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird.
  I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and
  indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his
  chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put
  his pipe down upon the mantelpiece.
  
  "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he
  remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare
  you for a few hours?"
  
  "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very
  absorbing."
  
  "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City
  first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that
  there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is
  rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is
  introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!"
  
  We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short
  walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular
  story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky,
  little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy
  two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in
  enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded
  laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and
  uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with
  "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced
  the place where our red-headed client carried on his business.
  Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side
  and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between
  puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down
  again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally
  he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously
  upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up
  to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a
  bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step
  in.
  
  "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would
  go from here to the Strand."
  
  "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly,
  closing the door.
  
  "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is,
  in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring
  I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known
  something of him before."
  
  "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good
  deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you
  inquired your way merely in order that you might see him."
  
  "Not him."
  
  "What then?"
  
  "The knees of his trousers."
  
  "And what did you see?"
  
  "What I expected to see."
  
  "Why did you beat the pavement?"
  
  "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We
  are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg
  Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it."
  
  The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the
  corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a
  contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was
  one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City
  to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense
  stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward,
  while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of
  pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line
  of fine shops and stately business premises that they really
  abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square
  which we had just quitted.
  
  "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing
  along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the
  houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of
  London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little
  newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank,
  the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building
  depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now,
  Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A
  sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where
  all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no
  red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums."
  
  My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a
  very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All
  the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect
  happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the
  music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes
  were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the
  relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was
  possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature
  alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and
  astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction
  against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally
  predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from
  extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was
  never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been
  lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his
  black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase
  would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning
  power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were
  unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a
  man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him
  that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I
  felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set
  himself to hunt down.
  
  "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we
  emerged.
  
  "Yes, it would be as well."
  
  "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This
  business at Coburg Square is serious."
  
  "Why serious?"
  
  "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to
  believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being
  Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help
  to-night."
  
  "At what time?"
  
  "Ten will be early enough."
  
  "I shall be at Baker Street at ten."
  
  "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger,
  so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his
  hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the
  crowd.
  
  I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was
  always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings
  with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had
  seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that
  he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to
  happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and
  grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought
  over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed
  copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg
  Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me.
  What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed?
  Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from
  Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a
  formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to
  puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside
  until night should bring an explanation.
  
  It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my
  way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker
  Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered
  the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering
  his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men,
  one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police
  agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a
  very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat.
  
  "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his
  pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack.
  "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me
  introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in
  to-night's adventure."
  
  "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in
  his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for
  starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do
  the running down."
  
  "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase,"
  observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily.
  
  "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said
  the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which
  are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical
  and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It
  is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of
  the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly
  correct than the official force."
  
  "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the
  stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber.
  It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I
  have not had my rubber."
  
  "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will
  play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and
  that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather,
  the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will
  be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands."
  
  "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a
  young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his
  profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on
  any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John
  Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been
  to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and
  though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to
  find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week,
  and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next.
  I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him
  yet."
  
  "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night.
  I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I
  agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is
  past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two
  will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the
  second."
  
  Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive
  and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in
  the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit
  streets until we emerged into Farrington Street.
  
  "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow
  Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the
  matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is
  not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession.
  He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as
  tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we
  are, and they are waiting for us."
  
  We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had
  found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and,
  following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a
  narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us.
  Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive
  iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding
  stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr.
  Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us
  down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a
  third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all
  round with crates and massive boxes.
  
  "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he
  held up the lantern and gazed about him.
  
  "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon
  the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite
  hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise.
  
  "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes
  severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our
  expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit
  down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?"
  
  The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a
  very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his
  knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens,
  began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few
  seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again
  and put his glass in his pocket.
  
  "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can
  hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed.
  Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their
  work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at
  present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of
  the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr.
  Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to
  you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of
  London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at
  present."
  
  "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had
  several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it."
  
  "Your French gold?"
  
  "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources
  and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of
  France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to
  unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The
  crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between
  layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at
  present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the
  directors have had misgivings upon the subject."
  
  "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is
  time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an
  hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr.
  Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern."
  
  "And sit in the dark?"
  
  "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and
  I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your
  rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have
  gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And,
  first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men,
  and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us
  some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate,
  and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a
  light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no
  compunction about shooting them down."
  
  I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case
  behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front
  of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute
  darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot
  metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready
  to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked
  up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and
  subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the
  vault.
  
  "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back
  through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have
  done what I asked you, Jones?"
  
  "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door."
  
  "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent
  and wait."
  
  What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but
  an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must
  have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs
  were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my
  nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my
  hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle
  breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper,
  heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note
  of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case
  in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint
  of a light.
  
  At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then
  it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then,
  without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand
  appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the
  centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the
  hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then
  it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark
  again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between
  the stones.
  
  Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending,
  tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon
  its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed
  the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut,
  boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand
  on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and
  waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another
  instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after
  him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face
  and a shock of very red hair.
  
  "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the
  bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!"
  
  Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the
  collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of
  rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed
  upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came
  down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone
  floor.
  
  "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no
  chance at all."
  
  "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy
  that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his
  coat-tails."
  
  "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes.
  
  "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I
  must compliment you."
  
  "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new
  and effective."
  
  "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker
  at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the
  derbies."
  
  "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands,"
  remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists.
  "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have
  the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and
  'please.'"
  
  "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would
  you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry
  your Highness to the police-station?"
  
  "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow
  to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the
  detective.
  
  "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them
  from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or
  repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated
  in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts
  at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience."
  
  "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr.
  John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over
  this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond
  that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in
  many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of
  the Red-headed League."
  
  
  "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning
  as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it
  was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible
  object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of
  the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get
  this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of
  hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but,
  really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was
  no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his
  accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw
  him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands?
  They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary
  office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and
  together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the
  week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for
  half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive
  for securing the situation."
  
  "But how could you guess what the motive was?"
  
  "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a
  mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The
  man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his
  house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and
  such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something
  out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's
  fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the
  cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then
  I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I
  had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in
  London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which
  took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once
  more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel
  to some other building.
  
  "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I
  surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was
  ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind.
  It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the
  assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had
  never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his
  face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have
  remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of
  those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they
  were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and
  Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I
  had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I
  called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank
  directors, with the result that you have seen."
  
  "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt
  to-night?" I asked.
  
  "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that
  they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other
  words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential
  that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the
  bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than
  any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape.
  For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night."
  
  "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned
  admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings
  true."
  
  "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already
  feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort
  to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little
  problems help me to do so."
  
  "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I.
  
  He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of
  some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre
  c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand."
  
  
  
  ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY
  
  "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side
  of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely
  stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We
  would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere
  commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window
  hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the
  roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the
  strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the
  wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and
  leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with
  its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and
  unprofitable."
  
  "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which
  come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and
  vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to
  its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed,
  neither fascinating nor artistic."
  
  "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a
  realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the
  police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the
  platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an
  observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend
  upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace."
  
  I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking
  so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser
  and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout
  three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is
  strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper
  from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the
  first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his
  wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without
  reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of
  course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the
  bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of
  writers could invent nothing more crude."
  
  "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument,"
  said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This
  is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged
  in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The
  husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the
  conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of
  winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling
  them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely
  to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a
  pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over
  you in your example."
  
  He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in
  the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his
  homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon
  it.
  
  "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks.
  It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my
  assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers."
  
  "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which
  sparkled upon his finger.
  
  "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in
  which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it
  even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of
  my little problems."
  
  "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest.
  
  "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of
  interest. They are important, you understand, without being
  interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in
  unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation,
  and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the
  charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the
  simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is
  the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter
  which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing
  which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however,
  that I may have something better before very many minutes are
  over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken."
  
  He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted
  blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street.
  Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite
  there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck,
  and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was
  tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her
  ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous,
  hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated
  backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove
  buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves
  the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp
  clang of the bell.
  
  "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his
  cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always
  means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure
  that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet
  even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously
  wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom
  is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love
  matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or
  grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts."
  
  As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons
  entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself
  loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed
  merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed
  her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and,
  having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked
  her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was
  peculiar to him.
  
  "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a
  little trying to do so much typewriting?"
  
  "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters
  are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport
  of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear
  and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've
  heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know
  all that?"
  
  "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know
  things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others
  overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?"
  
  "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege,
  whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had
  given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as
  much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in
  my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and
  I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel."
  
  "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked
  Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to
  the ceiling.
  
  Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss
  Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said,
  "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr.
  Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to
  the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he
  would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done,
  it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away
  to you."
  
  "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the
  name is different."
  
  "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny,
  too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself."
  
  "And your mother is alive?"
  
  "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr.
  Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and
  a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father
  was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy
  business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the
  foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the
  business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines.
  They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't
  near as much as father could have got if he had been alive."
  
  I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this
  rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he
  had listened with the greatest concentration of attention.
  
  "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the
  business?"
  
  "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle
  Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per
  cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can
  only touch the interest."
  
  "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so
  large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the
  bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in
  every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely
  upon an income of about 60 pounds."
  
  "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you
  understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a
  burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while
  I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the
  time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it
  over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I
  earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can
  often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day."
  
  "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes.
  "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as
  freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your
  connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel."
  
  A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked
  nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the
  gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets
  when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and
  sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He
  never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I
  wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I
  was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to
  prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all
  father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing
  fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much
  as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do,
  he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went,
  mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it
  was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel."
  
  "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from
  France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball."
  
  "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and
  shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying
  anything to a woman, for she would have her way."
  
  "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a
  gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel."
  
  "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if
  we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to
  say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father
  came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house
  any more."
  
  "No?"
  
  "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He
  wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to
  say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But
  then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to
  begin with, and I had not got mine yet."
  
  "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see
  you?"
  
  "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer
  wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each
  other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he
  used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so
  there was no need for father to know."
  
  "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?"
  
  "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that
  we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in
  Leadenhall Street--and--"
  
  "What office?"
  
  "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know."
  
  "Where did he live, then?"
  
  "He slept on the premises."
  
  "And you don't know his address?"
  
  "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street."
  
  "Where did you address your letters, then?"
  
  "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called
  for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be
  chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady,
  so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't
  have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come
  from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the
  machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he
  was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think
  of."
  
  "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom
  of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.
  Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?"
  
  "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me
  in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to
  be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his
  voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he
  was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat,
  and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always
  well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just
  as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare."
  
  "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather,
  returned to France?"
  
  "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we
  should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest
  and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever
  happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite
  right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion.
  Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder
  of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the
  week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to
  mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother
  said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like
  that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as
  he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do
  anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the
  company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on
  the very morning of the wedding."
  
  "It missed him, then?"
  
  "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived."
  
  "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for
  the Friday. Was it to be in church?"
  
  "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near
  King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St.
  Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were
  two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a
  four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the
  street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler
  drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and
  when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one
  there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become
  of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was
  last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything
  since then to throw any light upon what became of him."
  
  "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said
  Holmes.
  
  "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all
  the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to
  be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to
  separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him,
  and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed
  strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since
  gives a meaning to it."
  
  "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some
  unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?"
  
  "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he
  would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw
  happened."
  
  "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?"
  
  "None."
  
  "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?"
  
  "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter
  again."
  
  "And your father? Did you tell him?"
  
  "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had
  happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said,
  what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of
  the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my
  money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him,
  there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about
  money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what
  could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me
  half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She
  pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob
  heavily into it.
  
  "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and
  I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the
  weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind
  dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel
  vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life."
  
  "Then you don't think I'll see him again?"
  
  "I fear not."
  
  "Then what has happened to him?"
  
  "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an
  accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can
  spare."
  
  "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she.
  "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him."
  
  "Thank you. And your address?"
  
  "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell."
  
  "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your
  father's place of business?"
  
  "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers
  of Fenchurch Street."
  
  "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will
  leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given
  you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it
  to affect your life."
  
  "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be
  true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back."
  
  For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was
  something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which
  compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon
  the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever
  she might be summoned.
  
  Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips
  still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him,
  and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down
  from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a
  counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with
  the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of
  infinite languor in his face.
  
  "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found
  her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way,
  is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you
  consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of
  the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however,
  there were one or two details which were new to me. But the
  maiden herself was most instructive."
  
  "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite
  invisible to me," I remarked.
  
  "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to
  look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring
  you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of
  thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace.
  Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe
  it."
  
  "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a
  feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads
  sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her
  dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little
  purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and
  were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't
  observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a
  general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable,
  easy-going way."
  
  Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled.
  
  "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have
  really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed
  everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and
  you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general
  impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My
  first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is
  perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you
  observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most
  useful material for showing traces. The double line a little
  above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table,
  was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type,
  leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side
  of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the
  broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and,
  observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I
  ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed
  to surprise her."
  
  "It surprised me."
  
  "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and
  interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots
  which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were
  really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and
  the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower
  buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and
  fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly
  dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned,
  it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry."
  
  "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by
  my friend's incisive reasoning.
  
  "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving
  home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right
  glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see
  that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had
  written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been
  this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger.
  All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back
  to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised
  description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?"
  
  I held the little printed slip to the light.
  
  "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman
  named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height;
  strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in
  the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted
  glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen,
  in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert
  chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over
  elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in
  Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--"
  
  "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued,
  glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no
  clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There
  is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike
  you."
  
  "They are typewritten," I remarked.
  
  "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the
  neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you
  see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is
  rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in
  fact, we may call it conclusive."
  
  "Of what?"
  
  "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it
  bears upon the case?"
  
  "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able
  to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were
  instituted."
  
  "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters,
  which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the
  other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking
  him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow
  evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the
  male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the
  answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem
  upon the shelf for the interim."
  
  I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers
  of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that
  he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy
  demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had
  been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in
  the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler
  photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the
  Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with
  the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle
  indeed which he could not unravel.
  
  I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the
  conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would
  find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up
  to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary
  Sutherland.
  
  A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own
  attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at
  the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six
  o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a
  hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too
  late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found
  Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin
  form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable
  array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell
  of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the
  chemical work which was so dear to him.
  
  "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered.
  
  "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta."
  
  "No, no, the mystery!" I cried.
  
  "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon.
  There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said
  yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback
  is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel."
  
  "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss
  Sutherland?"
  
  The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet
  opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the
  passage and a tap at the door.
  
  "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said
  Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at
  six. Come in!"
  
  The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some
  thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a
  bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and
  penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of
  us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a
  slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair.
  
  "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that
  this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an
  appointment with me for six o'clock?"
  
  "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not
  quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland
  has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far
  better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite
  against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable,
  impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily
  controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I
  did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the
  official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family
  misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless
  expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?"
  
  "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to
  believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel."
  
  Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am
  delighted to hear it," he said.
  
  "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has
  really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless
  they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some
  letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one
  side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that
  in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and
  a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other
  characteristics, but those are the more obvious."
  
  "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office,
  and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing
  keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes.
  
  "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study,
  Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another
  little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its
  relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some
  little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come
  from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not
  only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will
  observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen
  other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well."
  
  Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I
  cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes,"
  he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know
  when you have done it."
  
  "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in
  the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!"
  
  "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips
  and glancing about him like a rat in a trap.
  
  "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There
  is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too
  transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that
  it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's
  right! Sit down and let us talk it over."
  
  Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a
  glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he
  stammered.
  
  "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves,
  Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a
  petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the
  course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong."
  
  The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his
  breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up
  on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands
  in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed,
  than to us.
  
  "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her
  money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the
  daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable
  sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have
  made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it.
  The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate
  and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with
  her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would
  not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would
  mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her
  stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of
  keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of
  people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not
  answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and
  finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain
  ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an
  idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the
  connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself,
  covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with
  a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice
  into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the
  girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off
  other lovers by making love himself."
  
  "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never
  thought that she would have been so carried away."
  
  "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very
  decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that
  her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never
  for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the
  gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the
  loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began
  to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as
  far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There
  were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the
  girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the
  deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys
  to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to
  bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it
  would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and
  prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to
  come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and
  hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening
  on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss
  Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to
  his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not
  listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her,
  and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished
  away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a
  four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of
  events, Mr. Windibank!"
  
  Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes
  had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold
  sneer upon his pale face.
  
  "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you
  are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is
  you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing
  actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door
  locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal
  constraint."
  
  "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking
  and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who
  deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a
  friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!"
  he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon
  the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but
  here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat
  myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he
  could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs,
  the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr.
  James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road.
  
  "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he
  threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will
  rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and
  ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not
  entirely devoid of interest."
  
  "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I
  remarked.
  
  "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr.
  Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious
  conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really
  profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the
  stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together,
  but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was
  suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice,
  which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My
  suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in
  typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his
  handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even
  the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts,
  together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same
  direction."
  
  "And how did you verify them?"
  
  "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I
  knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed
  description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the
  result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I
  sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me
  whether it answered to the description of any of their
  travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the
  typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business
  address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his
  reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but
  characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from
  Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the
  description tallied in every respect with that of their employé,
  James Windibank. Voilà tout!"
  
  "And Miss Sutherland?"
  
  "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old
  Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger
  cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.'
  There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much
  knowledge of the world."
  
  
  
  ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY
  
  We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the
  maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran
  in this way:
  
  "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from
  the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy.
  Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect.
  Leave Paddington by the 11:15."
  
  "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me.
  "Will you go?"
  
  "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at
  present."
  
  "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking
  a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good,
  and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases."
  
  "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained
  through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack
  at once, for I have only half an hour."
  
  My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the
  effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were
  few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a
  cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock
  Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt
  figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey
  travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap.
  
  "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It
  makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on
  whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless
  or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall
  get the tickets."
  
  We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of
  papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged
  and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until
  we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a
  gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack.
  
  "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked.
  
  "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days."
  
  "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just
  been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the
  particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those
  simple cases which are so extremely difficult."
  
  "That sounds a little paradoxical."
  
  "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a
  clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more
  difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they
  have established a very serious case against the son of the
  murdered man."
  
  "It is a murder, then?"
  
  "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for
  granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into
  it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have
  been able to understand it, in a very few words.
  
  "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in
  Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a
  Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned
  some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he
  held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was
  also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the
  colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to
  settle down they should do so as near each other as possible.
  Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his
  tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect
  equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son,
  a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same
  age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have
  avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to
  have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of
  sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the
  neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl.
  Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the
  least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the
  families. Now for the facts.
  
  "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at
  Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the
  Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out
  of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been
  out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told
  the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of
  importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came
  back alive.
  
  "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a
  mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One
  was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was
  William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both
  these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The
  game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr.
  McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the
  same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the
  father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was
  following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in
  the evening of the tragedy that had occurred.
  
  "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder,
  the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly
  wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the
  edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of
  the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the
  woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she
  saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr.
  McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a
  violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very
  strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his
  hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their
  violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached
  home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near
  Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to
  fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came
  running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead
  in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was
  much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right
  hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On
  following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the
  grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated
  blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as
  might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's
  gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the
  body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly
  arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned
  at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the
  magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next
  Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out
  before the coroner and the police-court."
  
  "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If
  ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so
  here."
  
  "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes
  thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing,
  but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it
  pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something
  entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case
  looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very
  possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people
  in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the
  daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his
  innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect
  in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in
  his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the
  case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are
  flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly
  digesting their breakfasts at home."
  
  "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you
  will find little credit to be gained out of this case."
  
  "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he
  answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some
  other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to
  Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting
  when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by
  means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of
  understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly
  perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand
  side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted
  even so self-evident a thing as that."
  
  "How on earth--"
  
  "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness
  which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this
  season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less
  and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until
  it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the
  jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated
  than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking
  at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a
  result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and
  inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that
  it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before
  us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in
  the inquest, and which are worth considering."
  
  "What are they?"
  
  "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after
  the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary
  informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not
  surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts.
  This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any
  traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the
  coroner's jury."
  
  "It was a confession," I ejaculated.
  
  "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence."
  
  "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at
  least a most suspicious remark."
  
  "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I
  can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be,
  he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the
  circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared
  surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I
  should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such
  surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances,
  and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His
  frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent
  man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and
  firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not
  unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of
  his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day
  so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and
  even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so
  important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The
  self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark
  appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a
  guilty one."
  
  I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter
  evidence," I remarked.
  
  "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged."
  
  "What is the young man's own account of the matter?"
  
  "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters,
  though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive.
  You will find it here, and may read it for yourself."
  
  He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire
  paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the
  paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own
  statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the
  corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this
  way:
  
  "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called
  and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for
  three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the
  morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at
  the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he
  had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after
  my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and,
  looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out
  of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was
  going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of
  the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit
  warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William
  Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but
  he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had
  no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards
  from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal
  between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found
  him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at
  seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A
  conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows,
  for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his
  passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned
  towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards,
  however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me
  to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground,
  with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in
  my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for
  some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper,
  his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one
  near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by
  his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and
  forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no
  active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.'
  
  "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before
  he died?
  
  "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some
  allusion to a rat.
  
  "The Coroner: What did you understand by that?
  
  "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was
  delirious.
  
  "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father
  had this final quarrel?
  
  "Witness: I should prefer not to answer.
  
  "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it.
  
  "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can
  assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which
  followed.
  
  "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point
  out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case
  considerably in any future proceedings which may arise.
  
  "Witness: I must still refuse.
  
  "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common
  signal between you and your father?
  
  "Witness: It was.
  
  "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw
  you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol?
  
  "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know.
  
  "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions
  when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father
  fatally injured?
  
  "Witness: Nothing definite.
  
  "The Coroner: What do you mean?
  
  "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into
  the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet
  I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay
  upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be
  something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps.
  When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was
  gone.
  
  "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?'
  
  "'Yes, it was gone.'
  
  "'You cannot say what it was?'
  
  "'No, I had a feeling something was there.'
  
  "'How far from the body?'
  
  "'A dozen yards or so.'
  
  "'And how far from the edge of the wood?'
  
  "'About the same.'
  
  "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen
  yards of it?'
  
  "'Yes, but with my back towards it.'
  
  "This concluded the examination of the witness."
  
  "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner
  in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy.
  He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his
  father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his
  refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and
  his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all,
  as he remarks, very much against the son."
  
  Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon
  the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some
  pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the
  young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him
  credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too
  little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would
  give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from
  his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying
  reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No,
  sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what
  this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that
  hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and
  not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the
  scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be
  there in twenty minutes."
  
  It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through
  the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn,
  found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A
  lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for
  us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and
  leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic
  surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of
  Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a
  room had already been engaged for us.
  
  "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup
  of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be
  happy until you had been on the scene of the crime."
  
  "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It
  is entirely a question of barometric pressure."
  
  Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said.
  
  "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud
  in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need
  smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country
  hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I
  shall use the carriage to-night."
  
  Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed
  your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as
  plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer
  it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a
  very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your
  opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing
  which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my
  soul! here is her carriage at the door."
  
  He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the
  most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her
  violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her
  cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her
  overpowering excitement and concern.
  
  "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the
  other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition,
  fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I
  have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it.
  I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it,
  too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each
  other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no
  one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a
  charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him."
  
  "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes.
  "You may rely upon my doing all that I can."
  
  "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion?
  Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself
  think that he is innocent?"
  
  "I think that it is very probable."
  
  "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking
  defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes."
  
  Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague
  has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said.
  
  "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did
  it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the
  reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because
  I was concerned in it."
  
  "In what way?" asked Holmes.
  
  "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had
  many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that
  there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always
  loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young
  and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he
  naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there
  were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them."
  
  "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a
  union?"
  
  "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in
  favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as
  Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her.
  
  "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father
  if I call to-morrow?"
  
  "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it."
  
  "The doctor?"
  
  "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for
  years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken
  to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his
  nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive
  who had known dad in the old days in Victoria."
  
  "Ha! In Victoria! That is important."
  
  "Yes, at the mines."
  
  "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner
  made his money."
  
  "Yes, certainly."
  
  "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to
  me."
  
  "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you
  will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do
  tell him that I know him to be innocent."
  
  "I will, Miss Turner."
  
  "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if
  I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She
  hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we
  heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street.
  
  "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a
  few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you
  are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I
  call it cruel."
  
  "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said
  Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?"
  
  "Yes, but only for you and me."
  
  "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have
  still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?"
  
  "Ample."
  
  "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very
  slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours."
  
  I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through
  the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel,
  where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a
  yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin,
  however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were
  groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the
  action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and
  gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the
  day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were
  absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely
  unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between
  the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when,
  drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was
  something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the
  nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts?
  I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which
  contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's
  deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left
  parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been
  shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot
  upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from
  behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when
  seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it
  did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his
  back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call
  Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying
  reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be
  delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become
  delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how
  he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my
  brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident
  of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the
  murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his
  overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to
  return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was
  kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a
  tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I
  did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith
  in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long
  as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young
  McCarthy's innocence.
  
  It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone,
  for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town.
  
  "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down.
  "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able
  to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his
  very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not
  wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young
  McCarthy."
  
  "And what did you learn from him?"
  
  "Nothing."
  
  "Could he throw no light?"
  
  "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew
  who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced
  now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very
  quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think,
  sound at heart."
  
  "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact
  that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as
  this Miss Turner."
  
  "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly,
  insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was
  only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away
  five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get
  into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a
  registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can
  imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not
  doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows
  to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort
  which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father,
  at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss
  Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself,
  and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would
  have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with
  his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in
  Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that
  point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however,
  for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious
  trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and
  has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the
  Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I
  think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all
  that he has suffered."
  
  "But if he is innocent, who has done it?"
  
  "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two
  points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with
  someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his
  son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would
  return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry
  'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the
  crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk
  about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all
  minor matters until to-morrow."
  
  There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke
  bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with
  the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe
  Pool.
  
  "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is
  said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is
  despaired of."
  
  "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes.
  
  "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life
  abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This
  business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend
  of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I
  have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free."
  
  "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes.
  
  "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody
  about here speaks of his kindness to him."
  
  "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this
  McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have
  been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of
  marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably,
  heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner,
  as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would
  follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself
  was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not
  deduce something from that?"
  
  "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said
  Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts,
  Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies."
  
  "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard
  to tackle the facts."
  
  "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it
  difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth.
  
  "And that is--"
  
  "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that
  all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine."
  
  "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes,
  laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley
  Farm upon the left."
  
  "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking
  building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches
  of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless
  chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight
  of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door,
  when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her
  master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the
  son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured
  these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes
  desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed
  the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool.
  
  Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent
  as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of
  Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed
  and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines,
  while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter.
  His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips
  compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long,
  sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal
  lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated
  upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell
  unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick,
  impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way
  along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of
  the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is
  all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon
  the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either
  side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and
  once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and
  I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous,
  while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the
  conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a
  definite end.
  
  The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water
  some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the
  Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner.
  Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see
  the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich
  landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods
  grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass
  twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds
  which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which
  the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground,
  that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the
  fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager
  face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read
  upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking
  up a scent, and then turned upon my companion.
  
  "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked.
  
  "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon
  or other trace. But how on earth--"
  
  "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its
  inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and
  there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all
  have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo
  and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the
  lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or
  eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of
  the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his
  waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to
  himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he
  was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are
  deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his
  story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are
  the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It
  is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this?
  Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite
  unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course
  that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up
  and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we
  were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a
  great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced
  his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon
  his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he
  remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks,
  gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and
  examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of
  the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among
  the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then
  he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the
  highroad, where all traces were lost.
  
  "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked,
  returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on
  the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a
  word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done
  that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab,
  and I shall be with you presently."
  
  It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove
  back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he
  had picked up in the wood.
  
  "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out.
  "The murder was done with it."
  
  "I see no marks."
  
  "There are none."
  
  "How do you know, then?"
  
  "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few
  days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It
  corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other
  weapon."
  
  "And the murderer?"
  
  "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears
  thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian
  cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his
  pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be
  enough to aid us in our search."
  
  Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he
  said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a
  hard-headed British jury."
  
  "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own
  method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon,
  and shall probably return to London by the evening train."
  
  "And leave your case unfinished?"
  
  "No, finished."
  
  "But the mystery?"
  
  "It is solved."
  
  "Who was the criminal, then?"
  
  "The gentleman I describe."
  
  "But who is he?"
  
  "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a
  populous neighbourhood."
  
  Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said,
  "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking
  for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the
  laughing-stock of Scotland Yard."
  
  "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance.
  Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before
  I leave."
  
  Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where
  we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in
  thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds
  himself in a perplexing position.
  
  "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit
  down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't
  know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a
  cigar and let me expound."
  
   "Pray do so."
  
  "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about
  young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly,
  although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One
  was the fact that his father should, according to his account,
  cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying
  reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but
  that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double
  point our research must commence, and we will begin it by
  presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true."
  
  "What of this 'Cooee!' then?"
  
  "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The
  son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that
  he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the
  attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But
  'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used
  between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the
  person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was
  someone who had been in Australia."
  
  "What of the rat, then?"
  
  Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened
  it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria,"
  he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand
  over part of the map. "What do you read?"
  
  "ARAT," I read.
  
  "And now?" He raised his hand.
  
  "BALLARAT."
  
  "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his
  son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter
  the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat."
  
  "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed.
  
  "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down
  considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point
  which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a
  certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite
  conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak."
  
  "Certainly."
  
  "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only
  be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could
  hardly wander."
  
  "Quite so."
  
  "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the
  ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that
  imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal."
  
  "But how did you gain them?"
  
  "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of
  trifles."
  
  "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length
  of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces."
  
  "Yes, they were peculiar boots."
  
  "But his lameness?"
  
  "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than
  his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he
  was lame."
  
  "But his left-handedness."
  
  "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded
  by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from
  immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can
  that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind
  that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had
  even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special
  knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian
  cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and
  written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different
  varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the
  ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss
  where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety
  which are rolled in Rotterdam."
  
  "And the cigar-holder?"
  
  "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he
  used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the
  cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife."
  
  "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which
  he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as
  truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the
  direction in which all this points. The culprit is--"
  
  "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of
  our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor.
  
  The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His
  slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of
  decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and
  his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual
  strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled
  hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air
  of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an
  ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were
  tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that
  he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease.
  
  "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my
  note?"
  
  "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to
  see me here to avoid scandal."
  
  "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall."
  
  "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my
  companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question
  was already answered.
  
  "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It
  is so. I know all about McCarthy."
  
  The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried.
  "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you
  my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at
  the Assizes."
  
  "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely.
  
  "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It
  would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears
  that I am arrested."
  
  "It may not come to that," said Holmes.
  
  "What?"
  
  "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter
  who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests.
  Young McCarthy must be got off, however."
  
  "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for
  years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a
  month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol."
  
  Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand
  and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he
  said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson
  here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the
  last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall
  not use it unless it is absolutely needed."
  
  "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I
  shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I
  should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the
  thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but
  will not take me long to tell.
  
  "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil
  incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of
  such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years,
  and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be
  in his power.
  
  "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap
  then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at
  anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck
  with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you
  would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and
  we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time
  to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings.
  Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party
  is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang.
  
  "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and
  we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers
  and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of
  their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed,
  however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of
  the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the
  Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his
  wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every
  feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made
  our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted
  from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and
  respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in
  the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money,
  to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too,
  and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice.
  Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down
  the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned
  over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was
  going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me.
  
  "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in
  Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his
  foot.
  
  "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be
  as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and
  you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine,
  law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman
  within hail.'
  
  "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking
  them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land
  ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness;
  turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my
  elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more
  afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he
  wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without
  question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing
  which I could not give. He asked for Alice.
  
  "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was
  known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that
  his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was
  firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that
  I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that
  was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do
  his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses
  to talk it over.
  
  "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I
  smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone.
  But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in
  me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my
  daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she
  were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I
  and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a
  man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and
  a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb,
  I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl!
  Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I
  did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned,
  I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl
  should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more
  than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction
  than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought
  back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I
  was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in
  my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that
  occurred."
  
  "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man
  signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we
  may never be exposed to such a temptation."
  
  "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?"
  
  "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you
  will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the
  Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is
  condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be
  seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or
  dead, shall be safe with us."
  
  "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds,
  when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace
  which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his
  giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room.
  
  "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate
  play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such
  a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say,
  'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'"
  
  James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a
  number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and
  submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven
  months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is
  every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily
  together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their
  past.
  
  
  
  ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS
  
  When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes
  cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which
  present strange and interesting features that it is no easy
  matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however,
  have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have
  not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend
  possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of
  these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his
  analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without
  an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and
  have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and
  surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to
  him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable
  in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted
  to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are
  points in connection with it which never have been, and probably
  never will be, entirely cleared up.
  
  The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater
  or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my
  headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the
  adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant
  Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a
  furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the
  British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the
  Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the
  Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered,
  Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to
  prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that
  therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a
  deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the
  case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of
  them present such singular features as the strange train of
  circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe.
  
  It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales
  had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had
  screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that
  even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced
  to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and
  to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which
  shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like
  untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew
  higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in
  the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the
  fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the
  other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until
  the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text,
  and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of
  the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a
  few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker
  Street.
  
  "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the
  bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?"
  
  "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage
  visitors."
  
  "A client, then?"
  
  "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out
  on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more
  likely to be some crony of the landlady's."
  
  Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there
  came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He
  stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and
  towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit.
  
  "Come in!" said he.
  
  The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the
  outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of
  refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella
  which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told
  of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about
  him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his
  face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is
  weighed down with some great anxiety.
  
  "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to
  his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have
  brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug
  chamber."
  
  "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest
  here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from
  the south-west, I see."
  
  "Yes, from Horsham."
  
  "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is
  quite distinctive."
  
  "I have come for advice."
  
  "That is easily got."
  
  "And help."
  
  "That is not always so easy."
  
  "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast
  how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal."
  
  "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards."
  
  "He said that you could solve anything."
  
  "He said too much."
  
  "That you are never beaten."
  
  "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a
  woman."
  
  "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?"
  
  "It is true that I have been generally successful."
  
  "Then you may be so with me."
  
  "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me
  with some details as to your case."
  
  "It is no ordinary one."
  
  "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of
  appeal."
  
  "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you
  have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of
  events than those which have happened in my own family."
  
  "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the
  essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards
  question you as to those details which seem to me to be most
  important."
  
  The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out
  towards the blaze.
  
  "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have,
  as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful
  business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an
  idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the
  affair.
  
  "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias
  and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry,
  which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He
  was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business
  met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire
  upon a handsome competence.
  
  "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and
  became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done
  very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army,
  and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When
  Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where
  he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came
  back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham.
  He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his
  reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his
  dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to
  them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very
  foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring
  disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I
  doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or
  three fields round his house, and there he would take his
  exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave
  his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very
  heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any
  friends, not even his own brother.
  
  "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the
  time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This
  would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years
  in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he
  was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be
  fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would
  make me his representative both with the servants and with the
  tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite
  master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I
  liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in
  his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he
  had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was
  invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or
  anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped
  through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a
  collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such
  a room.
  
  "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp
  lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a
  common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all
  paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From
  India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can
  this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little
  dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to
  laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight
  of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his
  skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he
  still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and
  then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!'
  
  "'What is it, uncle?' I cried.
  
  "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his
  room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope
  and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the
  gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else
  save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his
  overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I
  ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key,
  which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small
  brass box, like a cashbox, in the other.
  
  "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,'
  said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my
  room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.'
  
  "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to
  step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the
  grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned
  paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I
  glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was
  printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the
  envelope.
  
  "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave
  my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to
  my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to
  you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you
  cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest
  enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't
  say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper
  where Mr. Fordham shows you.'
  
  "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with
  him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest
  impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every
  way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I
  could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left
  behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed
  and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I
  could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever,
  and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his
  time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the
  inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy
  and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a
  revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man,
  and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by
  man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would
  rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him,
  like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror
  which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen
  his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it
  were new raised from a basin.
  
  "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to
  abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those
  drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when
  we went to search for him, face downward in a little
  green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There
  was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep,
  so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity,
  brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced
  from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself
  that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed,
  however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and
  of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank."
  
  "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee,
  one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me
  have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and
  the date of his supposed suicide."
  
  "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks
  later, upon the night of May 2nd."
  
  "Thank you. Pray proceed."
  
  "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my
  request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been
  always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its
  contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a
  paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and
  'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath.
  These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had
  been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was
  nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many
  scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in
  America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had
  done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier.
  Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern
  states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had
  evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag
  politicians who had been sent down from the North.
  
  "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at
  Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the
  January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my
  father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the
  breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened
  envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the
  outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what
  he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked
  very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon
  himself.
  
  "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered.
  
  "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I.
  
  "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are
  the very letters. But what is this written above them?'
  
  "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his
  shoulder.
  
  "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked.
  
  "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the
  papers must be those that are destroyed.'
  
  "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a
  civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind.
  Where does the thing come from?'
  
  "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark.
  
  "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do
  with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such
  nonsense.'
  
  "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said.
  
  "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.'
  
  "'Then let me do so?'
  
  "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such
  nonsense.'
  
  "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate
  man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of
  forebodings.
  
  "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went
  from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is
  in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad
  that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from
  danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in
  error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram
  from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had
  fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the
  neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I
  hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered
  his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from
  Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him,
  and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in
  bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.'
  Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I
  was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of
  murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no
  robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads.
  And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease,
  and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been
  woven round him.
  
  "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me
  why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well
  convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an
  incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as
  pressing in one house as in another.
  
  "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two
  years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time
  I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that
  this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended
  with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon,
  however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in
  which it had come upon my father."
  
  The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and
  turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried
  orange pips.
  
  "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is
  London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were
  upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the
  papers on the sundial.'"
  
  "What have you done?" asked Holmes.
  
  "Nothing."
  
  "Nothing?"
  
  "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white
  hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor
  rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in
  the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight
  and no precautions can guard against."
  
  "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are
  lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for
  despair."
  
  "I have seen the police."
  
  "Ah!"
  
  "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that
  the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all
  practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really
  accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with
  the warnings."
  
  Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible
  imbecility!" he cried.
  
  "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in
  the house with me."
  
  "Has he come with you to-night?"
  
  "No. His orders were to stay in the house."
  
  Again Holmes raved in the air.
  
  "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you
  not come at once?"
  
  "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major
  Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to
  you."
  
  "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have
  acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than
  that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which
  might help us?"
  
  "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat
  pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted
  paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance,"
  said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I
  observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the
  ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet
  upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it
  may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from
  among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond
  the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think
  myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is
  undoubtedly my uncle's."
  
  Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper,
  which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from
  a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the
  following enigmatical notices:
  
  "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform.
  
  "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and
        John Swain, of St. Augustine.
  
  "9th. McCauley cleared.
  
  "10th. John Swain cleared.
  
  "12th. Visited Paramore. All well."
  
  "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it
  to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another
  instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told
  me. You must get home instantly and act."
  
  "What shall I do?"
  
  "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must
  put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass
  box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say
  that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that
  this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such
  words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you
  must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do
  you understand?"
  
  "Entirely."
  
  "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I
  think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our
  web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first
  consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens
  you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the
  guilty parties."
  
  "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his
  overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall
  certainly do as you advise."
  
  "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in
  the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that
  you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you
  go back?"
  
  "By train from Waterloo."
  
  "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that
  you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too
  closely."
  
  "I am armed."
  
  "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case."
  
  "I shall see you at Horsham, then?"
  
  "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek
  it."
  
  "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news
  as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every
  particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside
  the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered
  against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come
  to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet
  of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them
  once more.
  
  Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk
  forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he
  lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue
  smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling.
  
  "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we
  have had none more fantastic than this."
  
  "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four."
  
  "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems
  to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the
  Sholtos."
  
  "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to
  what these perils are?"
  
  "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered.
  
  "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue
  this unhappy family?"
  
  Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the
  arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal
  reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a
  single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the
  chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which
  would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole
  animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who
  has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents
  should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both
  before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the
  reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study
  which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the
  aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest
  pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to
  utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this
  in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all
  knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and
  encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so
  impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge
  which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have
  endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one
  occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits
  in a very precise fashion."
  
  "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document.
  Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I
  remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the
  mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry
  eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime
  records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and
  self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the
  main points of my analysis."
  
  Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as
  I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic
  stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the
  rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he
  can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which
  has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster
  all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the
  'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you.
  Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be
  deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong
  presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for
  leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their
  habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for
  the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love
  of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of
  someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis
  that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from
  America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by
  considering the formidable letters which were received by himself
  and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those
  letters?"
  
  "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the
  third from London."
  
  "From East London. What do you deduce from that?"
  
  "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship."
  
  "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that
  the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was
  on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the
  case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and
  its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days.
  Does that suggest anything?"
  
  "A greater distance to travel."
  
  "But the letter had also a greater distance to come."
  
  "Then I do not see the point."
  
  "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man
  or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send
  their singular warning or token before them when starting upon
  their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign
  when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a
  steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter.
  But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those
  seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which
  brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the
  writer."
  
  "It is possible."
  
  "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly
  urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to
  caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which
  it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one
  comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay."
  
  "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless
  persecution?"
  
  "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital
  importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think
  that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them.
  A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way
  as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in
  it, and they must have been men of resource and determination.
  Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may.
  In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an
  individual and becomes the badge of a society."
  
  "But of what society?"
  
  "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and
  sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?"
  
  "I never have."
  
  Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it
  is," said he presently:
  
  "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to
  the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret
  society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the
  Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local
  branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee,
  Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was
  used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of
  the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country
  of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually
  preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic
  but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some
  parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this
  the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might
  fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would
  unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and
  unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the
  society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a
  case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with
  impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the
  perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite
  of the efforts of the United States government and of the better
  classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year
  1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have
  been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.'
  
  "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that
  the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the
  disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may
  well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his
  family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track.
  You can understand that this register and diary may implicate
  some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many
  who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered."
  
  "Then the page we have seen--"
  
  "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent
  the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to
  them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or
  left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a
  sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let
  some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only
  chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have
  told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done
  to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for
  half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable
  ways of our fellow-men."
  
  
  It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a
  subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the
  great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came
  down.
  
  "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I
  foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of
  young Openshaw's."
  
  "What steps will you take?" I asked.
  
  "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries.
  I may have to go down to Horsham, after all."
  
  "You will not go there first?"
  
  "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the
  maid will bring up your coffee."
  
  As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and
  glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a
  chill to my heart.
  
  "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late."
  
  "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it
  done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved.
  
  "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy
  Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account:
  
  "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H
  Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and
  a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and
  stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it
  was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was
  given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was
  eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman
  whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his
  pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham.
  It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch
  the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and
  the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge
  of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body
  exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that
  the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident,
  which should have the effect of calling the attention of the
  authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages."
  
  We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and
  shaken than I had ever seen him.
  
  "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty
  feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal
  matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my
  hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that
  I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair
  and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a
  flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and
  unclasping of his long thin hands.
  
  "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could
  they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the
  direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too
  crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson,
  we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!"
  
  "To the police?"
  
  "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may
  take the flies, but not before."
  
  All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in
  the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes
  had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he
  entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard,
  and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously,
  washing it down with a long draught of water.
  
  "You are hungry," I remarked.
  
  "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since
  breakfast."
  
  "Nothing?"
  
  "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it."
  
  "And how have you succeeded?"
  
  "Well."
  
  "You have a clue?"
  
  "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not
  long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish
  trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!"
  
  "What do you mean?"
  
  He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he
  squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and
  thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote
  "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain
  James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia."
  
  "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling.
  "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a
  precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him."
  
  "And who is this Captain Calhoun?"
  
  "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first."
  
  "How did you trace it, then?"
  
  He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with
  dates and names.
  
  "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers
  and files of the old papers, following the future career of every
  vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in
  '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were
  reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,'
  instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported
  as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to
  one of the states of the Union."
  
  "Texas, I think."
  
  "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must
  have an American origin."
  
  "What then?"
  
  "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque
  'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a
  certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present
  in the port of London."
  
  "Yes?"
  
  "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the
  Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by
  the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired
  to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and
  as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the
  Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight."
  
  "What will you do, then?"
  
  "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I
  learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are
  Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away
  from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has
  been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship
  reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and
  the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these
  three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder."
  
  There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans,
  and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the
  orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as
  resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very
  severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for
  news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We
  did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a
  shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough
  of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is
  all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star."
  
  
  
  ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP
  
  Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal
  of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to
  opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some
  foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De
  Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had
  drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the
  same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the
  practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many
  years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of
  mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see
  him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point
  pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble
  man.
  
  One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell,
  about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the
  clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work
  down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment.
  
  "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out."
  
  I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day.
  
  We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps
  upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in
  some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room.
  
  "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then,
  suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms
  about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in
  such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help."
  
  "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney.
  How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when
  you came in."
  
  "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was
  always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds
  to a light-house.
  
  "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine
  and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or
  should you rather that I sent James off to bed?"
  
  "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about
  Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about
  him!"
  
  It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her
  husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend
  and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words
  as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it
  possible that we could bring him back to her?
  
  It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late
  he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the
  farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been
  confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and
  shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him
  eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the
  dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the
  effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar
  of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could
  she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and
  pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him?
  
  There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of
  it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second
  thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical
  adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it
  better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would
  send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the
  address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left
  my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding
  eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at
  the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to
  be.
  
  But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my
  adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the
  high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east
  of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached
  by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the
  mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search.
  Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in
  the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the
  light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch
  and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the
  brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the
  forecastle of an emigrant ship.
  
  Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying
  in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads
  thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a
  dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black
  shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright,
  now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of
  the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to
  themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low,
  monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then
  suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own
  thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At
  the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside
  which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old
  man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon
  his knees, staring into the fire.
  
  As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe
  for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth.
  
  "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend
  of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him."
  
  There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and
  peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and
  unkempt, staring out at me.
  
  "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of
  reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what
  o'clock is it?"
  
  "Nearly eleven."
  
  "Of what day?"
  
  "Of Friday, June 19th."
  
  "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What
  d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his
  arms and began to sob in a high treble key.
  
  "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting
  this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!"
  
  "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here
  a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll
  go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate.
  Give me your hand! Have you a cab?"
  
  "Yes, I have one waiting."
  
  "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I
  owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself."
  
  I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of
  sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying
  fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed
  the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my
  skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look
  back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I
  glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my
  side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very
  wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between
  his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his
  fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my
  self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of
  astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him
  but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull
  eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and
  grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He
  made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he
  turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided
  into a doddering, loose-lipped senility.
  
  "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?"
  
  "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you
  would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend
  of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with
  you."
  
  "I have a cab outside."
  
  "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he
  appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should
  recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to
  say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait
  outside, I shall be with you in five minutes."
  
  It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for
  they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with
  such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney
  was once confined in the cab my mission was practically
  accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better
  than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular
  adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a
  few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him
  out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a
  very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den,
  and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two
  streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot.
  Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and
  burst into a hearty fit of laughter.
  
  "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added
  opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little
  weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical
  views."
  
  "I was certainly surprised to find you there."
  
  "But not more so than I to find you."
  
  "I came to find a friend."
  
  "And I to find an enemy."
  
  "An enemy?"
  
  "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural
  prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable
  inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent
  ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been
  recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an
  hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own
  purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have
  vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that
  building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some
  strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless
  nights."
  
  "What! You do not mean bodies?"
  
  "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds
  for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It
  is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that
  Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our
  trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his
  teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a
  similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle
  of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs.
  
  "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through
  the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from
  its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?"
  
  "If I can be of use."
  
  "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still
  more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one."
  
  "The Cedars?"
  
  "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I
  conduct the inquiry."
  
  "Where is it, then?"
  
  "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us."
  
  "But I am all in the dark."
  
  "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up
  here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a
  crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her
  head. So long, then!"
  
  He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through
  the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which
  widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad
  balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly
  beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and
  mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of
  the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of
  revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a
  star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of
  the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his
  breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat
  beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which
  seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in
  upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles,
  and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban
  villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up
  his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he
  is acting for the best.
  
  "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes
  you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great
  thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are
  not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear
  little woman to-night when she meets me at the door."
  
  "You forget that I know nothing about it."
  
  "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before
  we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can
  get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I
  can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case
  clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a
  spark where all is dark to me."
  
  "Proceed, then."
  
  "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee
  a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have
  plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very
  nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made
  friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter
  of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no
  occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into
  town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon
  Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of
  age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very
  affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know
  him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far
  as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while
  he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and
  Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money
  troubles have been weighing upon his mind.
  
  "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier
  than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important
  commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy
  home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife
  received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his
  departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable
  value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the
  offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up
  in your London, you will know that the office of the company is
  in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where
  you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for
  the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office,
  got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through
  Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me
  so far?"
  
  "It is very clear."
  
  "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St.
  Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab,
  as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself.
  While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly
  heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her
  husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning
  to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she
  distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly
  agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then
  vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that
  he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind.
  One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that
  although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town
  in, he had on neither collar nor necktie.
  
  "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the
  steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which
  you found me to-night--and running through the front room she
  attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At
  the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of
  whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who
  acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled
  with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the
  lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of
  constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The
  inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the
  continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to
  the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no
  sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was
  no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who,
  it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly
  swore that no one else had been in the front room during the
  afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was
  staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had
  been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box
  which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell
  a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had
  promised to bring home.
  
  "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple
  showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious.
  The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an
  abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a
  sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon
  the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom
  window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered
  at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The
  bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On
  examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill,
  and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of
  the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were
  all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of
  his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were
  there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these
  garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St.
  Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no
  other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon
  the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by
  swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of
  the tragedy.
  
  "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately
  implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the
  vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was
  known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few
  seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could
  hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence
  was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no
  knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he
  could not account in any way for the presence of the missing
  gentleman's clothes.
  
  "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who
  lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was
  certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St.
  Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which
  is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a
  professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police
  regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some
  little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand
  side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the
  wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat,
  cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he
  is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the
  greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I
  have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of
  making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised
  at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His
  appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him
  without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face
  disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has
  turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a
  pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular
  contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid
  the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he
  is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be
  thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now
  learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been
  the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest."
  
  "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed
  against a man in the prime of life?"
  
  "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in
  other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man.
  Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that
  weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional
  strength in the others."
  
  "Pray continue your narrative."
  
  "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the
  window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her
  presence could be of no help to them in their investigations.
  Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful
  examination of the premises, but without finding anything which
  threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not
  arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes
  during which he might have communicated with his friend the
  Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and
  searched, without anything being found which could incriminate
  him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right
  shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been
  cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from
  there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and
  that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from
  the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr.
  Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in
  his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to
  Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband
  at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or
  dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the
  police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in
  the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue.
  
  "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they
  had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not
  Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And
  what do you think they found in the pockets?"
  
  "I cannot imagine."
  
  "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with
  pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It
  was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a
  human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between
  the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the
  weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked
  away into the river."
  
  "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the
  room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?"
  
  "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose
  that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the
  window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed.
  What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him
  that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize
  the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it
  would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little
  time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried
  to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his
  Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street.
  There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret
  hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he
  stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the
  pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and
  would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard
  the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the
  window when the police appeared."
  
  "It certainly sounds feasible."
  
  "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a
  better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the
  station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before
  been anything against him. He had for years been known as a
  professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very
  quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and
  the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was
  doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is
  he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are
  all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot
  recall any case within my experience which looked at the first
  glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties."
  
  While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of
  events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great
  town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and
  we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us.
  Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered
  villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows.
  
  "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have
  touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in
  Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent.
  See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside
  that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have
  little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet."
  
  "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I
  asked.
  
  "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here.
  Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and
  you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for
  my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have
  no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!"
  
  We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its
  own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and
  springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding
  gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door
  flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad
  in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy
  pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure
  outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one
  half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head
  and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing
  question.
  
  "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two
  of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw
  that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.
  
  "No good news?"
  
  "None."
  
  "No bad?"
  
  "No."
  
  "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have
  had a long day."
  
  "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to
  me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it
  possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this
  investigation."
  
  "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly.
  "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our
  arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so
  suddenly upon us."
  
  "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were
  not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of
  any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be
  indeed happy."
  
  "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a
  well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had
  been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two
  plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain
  answer."
  
  "Certainly, madam."
  
  "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given
  to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion."
  
  "Upon what point?"
  
  "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?"
  
  Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question.
  "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking
  keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair.
  
  "Frankly, then, madam, I do not."
  
  "You think that he is dead?"
  
  "I do."
  
  "Murdered?"
  
  "I don't say that. Perhaps."
  
  "And on what day did he meet his death?"
  
  "On Monday."
  
  "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how
  it is that I have received a letter from him to-day."
  
  Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been
  galvanised.
  
  "What!" he roared.
  
  "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of
  paper in the air.
  
  "May I see it?"
  
  "Certainly."
  
  He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out
  upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I
  had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The
  envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend
  postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day
  before, for it was considerably after midnight.
  
  "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your
  husband's writing, madam."
  
  "No, but the enclosure is."
  
  "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go
  and inquire as to the address."
  
  "How can you tell that?"
  
  "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried
  itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that
  blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight
  off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This
  man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before
  he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not
  familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is
  nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha!
  there has been an enclosure here!"
  
  "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring."
  
  "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?"
  
  "One of his hands."
  
  "One?"
  
  "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual
  writing, and yet I know it well."
  
  "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a
  huge error which it may take some little time to rectify.
  Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf
  of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in
  Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been
  gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been
  chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's
  hand, madam?"
  
  "None. Neville wrote those words."
  
  "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair,
  the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the
  danger is over."
  
  "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes."
  
  "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent.
  The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from
  him."
  
  "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!"
  
  "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only
  posted to-day."
  
  "That is possible."
  
  "If so, much may have happened between."
  
  "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is
  well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I
  should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him
  last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room
  rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that
  something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such
  a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?"
  
  "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman
  may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical
  reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong
  piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband
  is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away
  from you?"
  
  "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable."
  
  "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?"
  
  "No."
  
  "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?"
  
  "Very much so."
  
  "Was the window open?"
  
  "Yes."
  
  "Then he might have called to you?"
  
  "He might."
  
  "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?"
  
  "Yes."
  
  "A call for help, you thought?"
  
  "Yes. He waved his hands."
  
  "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the
  unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?"
  
  "It is possible."
  
  "And you thought he was pulled back?"
  
  "He disappeared so suddenly."
  
  "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the
  room?"
  
  "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and
  the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs."
  
  "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his
  ordinary clothes on?"
  
  "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare
  throat."
  
  "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?"
  
  "Never."
  
  "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?"
  
  "Never."
  
  "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about
  which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little
  supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day
  to-morrow."
  
  A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our
  disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary
  after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however,
  who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for
  days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over,
  rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view
  until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his
  data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now
  preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and
  waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered
  about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from
  the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of
  Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with
  an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front
  of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an
  old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the
  corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him,
  silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set
  aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he
  sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found
  the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still
  between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was
  full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of
  shag which I had seen upon the previous night.
  
  "Awake, Watson?" he asked.
  
  "Yes."
  
  "Game for a morning drive?"
  
  "Certainly."
  
  "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the
  stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He
  chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed
  a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night.
  
  As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one
  was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly
  finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was
  putting in the horse.
  
  "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his
  boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the
  presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve
  to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the
  key of the affair now."
  
  "And where is it?" I asked, smiling.
  
  "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he
  continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been
  there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this
  Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will
  not fit the lock."
  
  We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into
  the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and
  trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both
  sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country
  carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but
  the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as
  some city in a dream.
  
  "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes,
  flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been
  as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than
  never to learn it at all."
  
  In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily
  from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey
  side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the
  river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the
  right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well
  known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted
  him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in.
  
  "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes.
  
  "Inspector Bradstreet, sir."
  
  "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come
  down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged
  jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet."
  "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small,
  office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a
  telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his
  desk.
  
  "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?"
  
  "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged
  with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St.
  Clair, of Lee."
  
  "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries."
  
  "So I heard. You have him here?"
  
  "In the cells."
  
  "Is he quiet?"
  
  "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel."
  
  "Dirty?"
  
  "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his
  face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been
  settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you
  saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it."
  
  "I should like to see him very much."
  
  "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave
  your bag."
  
  "No, I think that I'll take it."
  
  "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a
  passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and
  brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each
  side.
  
  "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it
  is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door
  and glanced through.
  
  "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well."
  
  We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his
  face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and
  heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his
  calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his
  tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely
  dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its
  repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right
  across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up
  one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a
  perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over
  his eyes and forehead.
  
  "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector.
  
  "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that
  he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me."
  He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my
  astonishment, a very large bath-sponge.
  
  "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector.
  
  "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very
  quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable
  figure."
  
  "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't
  look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his
  key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The
  sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep
  slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge,
  and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the
  prisoner's face.
  
  "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of
  Lee, in the county of Kent."
  
  Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled
  off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the
  coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had
  seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the
  repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled
  red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale,
  sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned,
  rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment.
  Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and
  threw himself down with his face to the pillow.
  
  "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing
  man. I know him from the photograph."
  
  The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons
  himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I
  charged with?"
  
  "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be
  charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of
  it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been
  twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake."
  
  "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime
  has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally
  detained."
  
  "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said
  Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife."
  
  "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner.
  "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My
  God! What an exposure! What can I do?"
  
  Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him
  kindly on the shoulder.
  
  "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said
  he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand,
  if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible
  case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the
  details should find their way into the papers. Inspector
  Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you
  might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case
  would then never go into court at all."
  
  "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have
  endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left
  my miserable secret as a family blot to my children.
  
  "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a
  schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent
  education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and
  finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day
  my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the
  metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point
  from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying
  begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to
  base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the
  secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for
  my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my
  face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good
  scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a
  small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of
  hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business
  part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a
  beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned
  home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no
  less than 26s. 4d.
  
  "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until,
  some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ
  served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get
  the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's
  grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers,
  and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In
  ten days I had the money and had paid the debt.
  
  "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous
  work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in
  a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on
  the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my
  pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up
  reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first
  chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets
  with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a
  low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could
  every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings
  transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow,
  a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that
  my secret was safe in his possession.
  
  "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of
  money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London
  could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average
  takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making
  up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by
  practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City.
  All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me,
  and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds.
  
  "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the
  country, and eventually married, without anyone having a
  suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had
  business in the City. She little knew what.
  
  "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my
  room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw,
  to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the
  street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of
  surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my
  confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from
  coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that
  she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on
  those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's
  eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it
  occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that
  the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening
  by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in
  the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was
  weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from
  the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of
  the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes
  would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of
  constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather,
  I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr.
  Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer.
  
  "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I
  was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and
  hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would
  be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the
  Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together
  with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to
  fear."
  
  "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes.
  
  "Good God! What a week she must have spent!"
  
  "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet,
  "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to
  post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor
  customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days."
  
  "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt
  of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?"
  
  "Many times; but what was a fine to me?"
  
  "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are
  to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone."
  
  "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take."
  
  "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps
  may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out.
  I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for
  having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your
  results."
  
  "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five
  pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if
  we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast."
  
  
  
  VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE
  
  I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second
  morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the
  compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a
  purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the
  right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly
  studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and
  on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable
  hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several
  places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair
  suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the
  purpose of examination.
  
  "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you."
  
  "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss
  my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his
  thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in
  connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and
  even of instruction."
  
  I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his
  crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows
  were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that,
  homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to
  it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of
  some mystery and the punishment of some crime."
  
  "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of
  those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have
  four million human beings all jostling each other within the
  space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so
  dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events
  may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be
  presented which may be striking and bizarre without being
  criminal. We have already had experience of such."
  
  "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I
  have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any
  legal crime."
  
  "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler
  papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the
  adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt
  that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category.
  You know Peterson, the commissionaire?"
  
  "Yes."
  
  "It is to him that this trophy belongs."
  
  "It is his hat."
  
  "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will
  look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual
  problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon
  Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I
  have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's
  fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas
  morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was
  returning from some small jollification and was making his way
  homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in
  the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and
  carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the
  corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger
  and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the
  man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and,
  swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him.
  Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his
  assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and
  seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him,
  dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the
  labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham
  Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of
  Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of
  battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this
  battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose."
  
  "Which surely he restored to their owner?"
  
  "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For
  Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to
  the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H.
  B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are
  some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in
  this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any
  one of them."
  
  "What, then, did Peterson do?"
  
  "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning,
  knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me.
  The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs
  that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it
  should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried
  it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose,
  while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who
  lost his Christmas dinner."
  
  "Did he not advertise?"
  
  "No."
  
  "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?"
  
  "Only as much as we can deduce."
  
  "From his hat?"
  
  "Precisely."
  
  "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered
  felt?"
  
  "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather
  yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this
  article?"
  
  I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather
  ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round
  shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of
  red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's
  name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were
  scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a
  hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was
  cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places,
  although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the
  discoloured patches by smearing them with ink.
  
  "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend.
  
  "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail,
  however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in
  drawing your inferences."
  
  "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?"
  
  He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective
  fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less
  suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there
  are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others
  which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That
  the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the
  face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the
  last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He
  had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a
  moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his
  fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink,
  at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that
  his wife has ceased to love him."
  
  "My dear Holmes!"
  
  "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he
  continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a
  sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is
  middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the
  last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are
  the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also,
  by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid
  on in his house."
  
  "You are certainly joking, Holmes."
  
  "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you
  these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?"
  
  "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I
  am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that
  this man was intellectual?"
  
  For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right
  over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is
  a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a
  brain must have something in it."
  
  "The decline of his fortunes, then?"
  
  "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge
  came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the
  band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could
  afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no
  hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world."
  
  "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the
  foresight and the moral retrogression?"
  
  Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting
  his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer.
  "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a
  sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his
  way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see
  that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace
  it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly,
  which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other
  hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the
  felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not
  entirely lost his self-respect."
  
  "Your reasoning is certainly plausible."
  
  "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is
  grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses
  lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the
  lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of
  hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all
  appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of
  lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey
  dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house,
  showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while
  the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the
  wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in
  the best of training."
  
  "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him."
  
  "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear
  Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and
  when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear
  that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's
  affection."
  
  "But he might be a bachelor."
  
  "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his
  wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg."
  
  "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce
  that the gas is not laid on in his house?"
  
  "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I
  see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt
  that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with
  burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in
  one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never
  got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?"
  
  "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as
  you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm
  done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a
  waste of energy."
  
  Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew
  open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment
  with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with
  astonishment.
  
  "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped.
  
  "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off
  through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon
  the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face.
  
  "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out
  his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly
  scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but
  of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric
  point in the dark hollow of his hand.
  
  Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said
  he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you
  have got?"
  
  "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though
  it were putty."
  
  "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone."
  
  "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated.
  
  "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I
  have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day
  lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be
  conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly
  not within a twentieth part of the market price."
  
  "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire
  plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us.
  
  "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are
  sentimental considerations in the background which would induce
  the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but
  recover the gem."
  
  "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I
  remarked.
  
  "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner,
  a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's
  jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case
  has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the
  matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers,
  glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out,
  doubled it over, and read the following paragraph:
  
  "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was
  brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst.,
  abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the
  valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder,
  upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect
  that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess
  of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might
  solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had
  remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been
  called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared,
  that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco
  casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was
  accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the
  dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was
  arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found
  either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to
  the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on
  discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room,
  where she found matters as described by the last witness.
  Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest
  of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence
  in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for
  robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate
  refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to
  the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion
  during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was
  carried out of court."
  
  "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully,
  tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the
  sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to
  the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You
  see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much
  more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the
  stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry
  Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other
  characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set
  ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and
  ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To
  do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie
  undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If
  this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods."
  
  "What will you say?"
  
  "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at
  the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr.
  Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at
  221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise."
  
  "Very. But will he see it?"
  
  "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor
  man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his
  mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson
  that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must
  have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his
  bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to
  see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to
  it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency
  and have this put in the evening papers."
  
  "In which, sir?"
  
  "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News,
  Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you."
  
  "Very well, sir. And this stone?"
  
  "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say,
  Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here
  with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place
  of the one which your family is now devouring."
  
  When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and
  held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just
  see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and
  focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet
  baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a
  bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found
  in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable
  in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is
  blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has
  already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a
  vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about
  for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal.
  Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the
  gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and
  drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it."
  
  "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?"
  
  "I cannot tell."
  
  "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had
  anything to do with the matter?"
  
  "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an
  absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he
  was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made
  of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple
  test if we have an answer to our advertisement."
  
  "And you can do nothing until then?"
  
  "Nothing."
  
  "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall
  come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I
  should like to see the solution of so tangled a business."
  
  "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I
  believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I
  ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop."
  
  I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past
  six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I
  approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a
  coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the
  bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I
  arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to
  Holmes' room.
  
  "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair
  and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he
  could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr.
  Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is
  more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have
  just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?"
  
  "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat."
  
  He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a
  broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of
  grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight
  tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his
  habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in
  front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded
  from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a
  slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the
  impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had
  ill-usage at the hands of fortune.
  
  "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes,
  "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your
  address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise."
  
  Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not
  been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had
  no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off
  both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a
  hopeless attempt at recovering them."
  
  "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to
  eat it."
  
  "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his
  excitement.
  
  "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so.
  But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is
  about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your
  purpose equally well?"
  
  "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of
  relief.
  
  "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of
  your own bird, so if you wish--"
  
  The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as
  relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly
  see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are
  going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I
  will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive
  upon the sideboard."
  
  Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug
  of his shoulders.
  
  "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the
  way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one
  from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a
  better grown goose."
  
  "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly
  gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who
  frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in
  the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our
  good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which,
  on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to
  receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the
  rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a
  Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With
  a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and
  strode off upon his way.
  
  "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the
  door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing
  whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?"
  
  "Not particularly."
  
  "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow
  up this clue while it is still hot."
  
  "By all means."
  
  It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped
  cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly
  in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out
  into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out
  crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter,
  Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into
  Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at
  the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one
  of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open
  the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from
  the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord.
  
  "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese,"
  said he.
  
  "My geese!" The man seemed surprised.
  
  "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker,
  who was a member of your goose club."
  
  "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese."
  
  "Indeed! Whose, then?"
  
  "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden."
  
  "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?"
  
  "Breckinridge is his name."
  
  "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord,
  and prosperity to your house. Good-night."
  
  "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat
  as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though
  we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we
  have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal
  servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible
  that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we
  have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police,
  and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us
  follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and
  quick march!"
  
  We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a
  zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest
  stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor
  a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was
  helping a boy to put up the shutters.
  
  "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes.
  
  The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my
  companion.
  
  "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the
  bare slabs of marble.
  
  "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning."
  
  "That's no good."
  
  "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare."
  
  "Ah, but I was recommended to you."
  
  "Who by?"
  
  "The landlord of the Alpha."
  
  "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen."
  
  "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?"
  
  To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the
  salesman.
  
  "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms
  akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now."
  
  "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the
  geese which you supplied to the Alpha."
  
  "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!"
  
  "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you
  should be so warm over such a trifle."
  
  "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am.
  When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end
  of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you
  sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One
  would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the
  fuss that is made over them."
  
  "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been
  making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us
  the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my
  opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the
  bird I ate is country bred."
  
  "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped
  the salesman.
  
  "It's nothing of the kind."
  
  "I say it is."
  
  "I don't believe it."
  
  "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled
  them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that
  went to the Alpha were town bred."
  
  "You'll never persuade me to believe that."
  
  "Will you bet, then?"
  
  "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But
  I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be
  obstinate."
  
  The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said
  he.
  
  The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great
  greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging
  lamp.
  
  "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I
  was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is
  still one left in my shop. You see this little book?"
  
  "Well?"
  
  "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well,
  then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers
  after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger.
  Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a
  list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just
  read it out to me."
  
  "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes.
  
  "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger."
  
  Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs.
  Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'"
  
  "Now, then, what's the last entry?"
  
  "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'"
  
  "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?"
  
  "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'"
  
  "What have you to say now?"
  
  Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from
  his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the
  air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off
  he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless
  fashion which was peculiar to him.
  
  "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un'
  protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet,"
  said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of
  him, that man would not have given me such complete information
  as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a
  wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our
  quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is
  whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or
  whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what
  that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves
  who are anxious about the matter, and I should--"
  
  His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke
  out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a
  little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of
  yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while
  Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was
  shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure.
  
  "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you
  were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more
  with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs.
  Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with
  it? Did I buy the geese off you?"
  
  "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little
  man.
  
  "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it."
  
  "She told me to ask you."
  
  "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had
  enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and
  the inquirer flitted away into the darkness.
  
  "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes.
  "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this
  fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who
  lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook
  the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang
  round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of
  colour had been driven from his face.
  
  "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering
  voice.
  
  "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help
  overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now.
  I think that I could be of assistance to you."
  
  "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?"
  
  "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other
  people don't know."
  
  "But you can know nothing of this?"
  
  "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to
  trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton
  Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr.
  Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr.
  Henry Baker is a member."
  
  "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried
  the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers.
  "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter."
  
  Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that
  case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this
  wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we
  go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting."
  
  The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he
  answered with a sidelong glance.
  
  "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always
  awkward doing business with an alias."
  
  A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then,"
  said he, "my real name is James Ryder."
  
  "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray
  step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you
  everything which you would wish to know."
  
  The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with
  half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure
  whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe.
  Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in
  the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during
  our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and
  the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous
  tension within him.
  
  "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room.
  "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold,
  Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my
  slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then!
  You want to know what became of those geese?"
  
  "Yes, sir."
  
  "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in
  which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the
  tail."
  
  Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell
  me where it went to?"
  
  "It came here."
  
  "Here?"
  
  "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that
  you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was
  dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen.
  I have it here in my museum."
  
  Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece
  with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up
  the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold,
  brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a
  drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it.
  
  "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or
  you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair,
  Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with
  impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little
  more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!"
  
  For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy
  brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring
  with frightened eyes at his accuser.
  
  "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I
  could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me.
  Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case
  complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the
  Countess of Morcar's?"
  
  "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a
  crackling voice.
  
  "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of
  sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has
  been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous
  in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the
  making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man
  Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter
  before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him.
  What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's
  room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he
  should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled
  the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man
  arrested. You then--"
  
  Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my
  companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked.
  "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I
  never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll
  swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's
  sake, don't!"
  
  "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well
  to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this
  poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing."
  
  "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the
  charge against him will break down."
  
  "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account
  of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came
  the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies
  your only hope of safety."
  
  Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you
  it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been
  arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get
  away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment
  the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my
  room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe.
  I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's
  house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton
  Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there
  every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective;
  and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down
  my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me
  what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I
  had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went
  into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would
  be best to do.
  
  "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and
  has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met
  me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they
  could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to
  me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind
  to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my
  confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money.
  But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had
  gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be
  seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat
  pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at
  the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly
  an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the
  best detective that ever lived.
  
  "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the
  pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she
  was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in
  it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in
  the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big
  one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill
  open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger
  could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass
  along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped
  and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the
  matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and
  fluttered off among the others.
  
  "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she.
  
  "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I
  was feeling which was the fattest.'
  
  "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we
  call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six
  of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen
  for the market.'
  
  "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you,
  I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.'
  
  "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we
  fattened it expressly for you.'
  
  "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I.
  
  "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it
  you want, then?'
  
  "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the
  flock.'
  
  "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.'
  
  "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird
  all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was
  a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed
  until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My
  heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I
  knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird,
  rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There
  was not a bird to be seen there.
  
  "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried.
  
  "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.'
  
  "'Which dealer's?'
  
  "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.'
  
  "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same
  as the one I chose?'
  
  "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never
  tell them apart.'
  
  "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my
  feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the
  lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they
  had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always
  answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad.
  Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself
  a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which
  I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into
  convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands.
  
  There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and
  by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the
  edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door.
  
  "Get out!" said he.
  
  "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!"
  
  "No more words. Get out!"
  
  And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon
  the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running
  footfalls from the street.
  
  "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his
  clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their
  deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing;
  but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must
  collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just
  possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong
  again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and
  you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of
  forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and
  whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you
  will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin
  another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief
  feature."
  
  
  
  VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND
  
  On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I
  have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend
  Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number
  merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did
  rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of
  wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation
  which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic.
  Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which
  presented more singular features than that which was associated
  with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran.
  The events in question occurred in the early days of my
  association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors
  in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them
  upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the
  time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by
  the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It
  is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I
  have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the
  death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even
  more terrible than the truth.
  
  It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to
  find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my
  bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the
  mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I
  blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little
  resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits.
  
  "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the
  common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she
  retorted upon me, and I on you."
  
  "What is it, then--a fire?"
  
  "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a
  considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She
  is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander
  about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock
  sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is
  something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it
  prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to
  follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should
  call you and give you the chance."
  
  "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything."
  
  I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his
  professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid
  deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a
  logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were
  submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in
  a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A
  lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in
  the window, rose as we entered.
  
  "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock
  Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson,
  before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am
  glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the
  fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot
  coffee, for I observe that you are shivering."
  
  "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low
  voice, changing her seat as requested.
  
  "What, then?"
  
  "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as
  she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable
  state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless
  frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features
  and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot
  with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard.
  Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick,
  all-comprehensive glances.
  
  "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and
  patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no
  doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see."
  
  "You know me, then?"
  
  "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm
  of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had
  a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached
  the station."
  
  The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my
  companion.
  
  "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left
  arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven
  places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a
  dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you
  sit on the left-hand side of the driver."
  
  "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said
  she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at
  twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I
  can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues.
  I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me,
  and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you,
  Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you
  helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had
  your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me,
  too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness
  which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward
  you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be
  married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you
  shall not find me ungrateful."
  
  Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small
  case-book, which he consulted.
  
  "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was
  concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time,
  Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote
  the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to
  reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty
  to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which
  suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us
  everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the
  matter."
  
  "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation
  lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions
  depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to
  another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to
  look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it
  as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can
  read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have
  heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold
  wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid
  the dangers which encompass me."
  
  "I am all attention, madam."
  
  "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who
  is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in
  England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of
  Surrey."
  
  Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he.
  
  "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the
  estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north,
  and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four
  successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition,
  and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the
  days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground,
  and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under
  a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence
  there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but
  his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to
  the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which
  enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta,
  where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he
  established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused
  by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he
  beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital
  sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and
  afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man.
  
  "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner,
  the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery.
  My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old
  at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable
  sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she
  bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him,
  with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to
  each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return
  to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a
  railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his
  attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us
  to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The
  money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and
  there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness.
  
  "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time.
  Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our
  neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of
  Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in
  his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious
  quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper
  approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the
  family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been
  intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of
  disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the
  police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village,
  and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of
  immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger.
  
  "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a
  stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I
  could gather together that I was able to avert another public
  exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies,
  and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few
  acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate,
  and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents,
  wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a
  passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a
  correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon,
  which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the
  villagers almost as much as their master.
  
  "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I
  had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with
  us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was
  but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already
  begun to whiten, even as mine has."
  
  "Your sister is dead, then?"
  
  "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish
  to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I
  have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own
  age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden
  sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we
  were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's
  house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there
  a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My
  stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and
  offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of
  the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event
  occurred which has deprived me of my only companion."
  
  Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes
  closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his
  lids now and glanced across at his visitor.
  
  "Pray be precise as to details," said he.
  
  "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful
  time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have
  already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The
  bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms
  being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms
  the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third
  my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open
  out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?"
  
  "Perfectly so."
  
  "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That
  fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we
  knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled
  by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom
  to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where
  she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At
  eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door
  and looked back.
  
  "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle
  in the dead of the night?'
  
  "'Never,' said I.
  
  "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in
  your sleep?'
  
  "'Certainly not. But why?'
  
  "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three
  in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper,
  and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps
  from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would
  just ask you whether you had heard it.'
  
  "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the
  plantation.'
  
  "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you
  did not hear it also.'
  
  "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.'
  
  "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled
  back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her
  key turn in the lock."
  
  "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock
  yourselves in at night?"
  
  "Always."
  
  "And why?"
  
  "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah
  and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were
  locked."
  
  "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement."
  
  "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending
  misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect,
  were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two
  souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind
  was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing
  against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale,
  there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew
  that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a
  shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door
  I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and
  a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had
  fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked,
  and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it
  horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By
  the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the
  opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for
  help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a
  drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that
  moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground.
  She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were
  dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not
  recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out
  in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was
  the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she
  would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the
  air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion
  seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for
  my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his
  dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was
  unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent
  for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for
  she slowly sank and died without having recovered her
  consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister."
  
  "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and
  metallic sound? Could you swear to it?"
  
  "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is
  my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of
  the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have
  been deceived."
  
  "Was your sister dressed?"
  
  "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the
  charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box."
  
  "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when
  the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did
  the coroner come to?"
  
  "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's
  conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable
  to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that
  the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows
  were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars,
  which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded,
  and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was
  also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is
  wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain,
  therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end.
  Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her."
  
  "How about poison?"
  
  "The doctors examined her for it, but without success."
  
  "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?"
  
  "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock,
  though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine."
  
  "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?"
  
  "Yes, there are nearly always some there."
  
  "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a
  speckled band?"
  
  "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of
  delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of
  people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not
  know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear
  over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which
  she used."
  
  Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied.
  
  "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your
  narrative."
  
  "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until
  lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend,
  whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask
  my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the
  second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My
  stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to
  be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs
  were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom
  wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the
  chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in
  which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last
  night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I
  suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which
  had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the
  lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to
  go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was
  daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which
  is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on
  this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your
  advice."
  
  "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me
  all?"
  
  "Yes, all."
  
  "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather."
  
  "Why, what do you mean?"
  
  For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which
  fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little
  livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed
  upon the white wrist.
  
  "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes.
  
  The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He
  is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own
  strength."
  
  There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin
  upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire.
  
  "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a
  thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide
  upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If
  we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for
  us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your
  stepfather?"
  
  "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some
  most important business. It is probable that he will be away all
  day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a
  housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily
  get her out of the way."
  
  "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?"
  
  "By no means."
  
  "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?"
  
  "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am
  in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to
  be there in time for your coming."
  
  "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some
  small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and
  breakfast?"
  
  "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have
  confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you
  again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her
  face and glided from the room.
  
  "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes,
  leaning back in his chair.
  
  "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business."
  
  "Dark enough and sinister enough."
  
  "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls
  are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable,
  then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her
  mysterious end."
  
  "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the
  very peculiar words of the dying woman?"
  
  "I cannot think."
  
  "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of
  a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor,
  the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has
  an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying
  allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner
  heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of
  those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its
  place, I think that there is good ground to think that the
  mystery may be cleared along those lines."
  
  "But what, then, did the gipsies do?"
  
  "I cannot imagine."
  
  "I see many objections to any such theory."
  
  "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going
  to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are
  fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of
  the devil!"
  
  The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that
  our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had
  framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar
  mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a
  black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters,
  with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his
  hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his
  breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face,
  seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and
  marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other
  of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin,
  fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old
  bird of prey.
  
  "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition.
  
  "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my
  companion quietly.
  
  "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran."
  
  "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat."
  
  "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I
  have traced her. What has she been saying to you?"
  
  "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes.
  
  "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man
  furiously.
  
  "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my
  companion imperturbably.
  
  "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step
  forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel!
  I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler."
  
  My friend smiled.
  
  "Holmes, the busybody!"
  
  His smile broadened.
  
  "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!"
  
  Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most
  entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for
  there is a decided draught."
  
  "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with
  my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her!
  I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped
  swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with
  his huge brown hands.
  
  "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and
  hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the
  room.
  
  "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am
  not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him
  that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke
  he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort,
  straightened it out again.
  
  "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official
  detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation,
  however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer
  from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now,
  Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk
  down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may
  help us in this matter."
  
  
  It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his
  excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled
  over with notes and figures.
  
  "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To
  determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the
  present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The
  total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little
  short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural
  prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an
  income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident,
  therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have
  had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to
  a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted,
  since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for
  standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson,
  this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is
  aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you
  are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be
  very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your
  pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen
  who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush
  are, I think, all that we need."
  
  At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for
  Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove
  for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a
  perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the
  heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out
  their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant
  smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange
  contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this
  sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in
  the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over
  his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the
  deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the
  shoulder, and pointed over the meadows.
  
  "Look there!" said he.
  
  A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope,
  thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the
  branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a
  very old mansion.
  
  "Stoke Moran?" said he.
  
  "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked
  the driver.
  
  "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is
  where we are going."
  
  "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of
  roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the
  house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by
  the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is
  walking."
  
  "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading
  his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest."
  
  We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way
  to Leatherhead.
  
  "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile,
  "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or
  on some definite business. It may stop his gossip.
  Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as
  our word."
  
  Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a
  face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for
  you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned
  out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely
  that he will be back before evening."
  
  "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance,"
  said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had
  occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened.
  
  "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then."
  
  "So it appears."
  
  "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What
  will he say when he returns?"
  
  "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone
  more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself
  up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to
  your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our
  time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to
  examine."
  
  The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high
  central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab,
  thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were
  broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly
  caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little
  better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern,
  and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up
  from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided.
  Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the
  stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any
  workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and
  down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the
  outsides of the windows.
  
  "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep,
  the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main
  building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?"
  
  "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one."
  
  "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does
  not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end
  wall."
  
  "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from
  my room."
  
  "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow
  wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There
  are windows in it, of course?"
  
  "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass
  through."
  
  "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were
  unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness
  to go into your room and bar your shutters?"
  
  Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination
  through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the
  shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through
  which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his
  lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built
  firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his
  chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some
  difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were
  bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon
  the matter."
  
  A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which
  the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third
  chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss
  Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her
  fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a
  gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A
  brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow
  white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the
  left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small
  wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save
  for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and
  the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old
  and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building
  of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat
  silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down,
  taking in every detail of the apartment.
  
  "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last
  pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the
  tassel actually lying upon the pillow.
  
  "It goes to the housekeeper's room."
  
  "It looks newer than the other things?"
  
  "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago."
  
  "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?"
  
  "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we
  wanted for ourselves."
  
  "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there.
  You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to
  this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in
  his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining
  minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with
  the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he
  walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and
  in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the
  bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug.
  
  "Why, it's a dummy," said he.
  
  "Won't it ring?"
  
  "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting.
  You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where
  the little opening for the ventilator is."
  
  "How very absurd! I never noticed that before."
  
  "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are
  one or two very singular points about this room. For example,
  what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another
  room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated
  with the outside air!"
  
  "That is also quite modern," said the lady.
  
  "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes.
  
  "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that
  time."
  
  "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy
  bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your
  permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into
  the inner apartment."
  
  Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his
  step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small
  wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an
  armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a
  round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things
  which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each
  and all of them with the keenest interest.
  
  "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe.
  
  "My stepfather's business papers."
  
  "Oh! you have seen inside, then?"
  
  "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of
  papers."
  
  "There isn't a cat in it, for example?"
  
  "No. What a strange idea!"
  
  "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which
  stood on the top of it.
  
  "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon."
  
  "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a
  saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I
  daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He
  squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat
  of it with the greatest attention.
  
  "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting
  his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!"
  
  The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on
  one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself
  and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord.
  
  "What do you make of that, Watson?"
  
  "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be
  tied."
  
  "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world,
  and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst
  of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and
  with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn."
  
  I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as
  it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We
  had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss
  Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he
  roused himself from his reverie.
  
  "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should
  absolutely follow my advice in every respect."
  
  "I shall most certainly do so."
  
  "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may
  depend upon your compliance."
  
  "I assure you that I am in your hands."
  
  "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in
  your room."
  
  Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment.
  
  "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the
  village inn over there?"
  
  "Yes, that is the Crown."
  
  "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?"
  
  "Certainly."
  
  "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a
  headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him
  retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window,
  undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then
  withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want
  into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in
  spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night."
  
  "Oh, yes, easily."
  
  "The rest you will leave in our hands."
  
  "But what will you do?"
  
  "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate
  the cause of this noise which has disturbed you."
  
  "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind,"
  said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve.
  
  "Perhaps I have."
  
  "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's
  death."
  
  "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak."
  
  "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and
  if she died from some sudden fright."
  
  "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more
  tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if
  Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain.
  Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you,
  you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers
  that threaten you."
  
  Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and
  sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and
  from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and
  of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw
  Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside
  the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some
  slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard
  the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which
  he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few
  minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as
  the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms.
  
  "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the
  gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you
  to-night. There is a distinct element of danger."
  
  "Can I be of assistance?"
  
  "Your presence might be invaluable."
  
  "Then I shall certainly come."
  
  "It is very kind of you."
  
  "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms
  than was visible to me."
  
  "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine
  that you saw all that I did."
  
  "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose
  that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine."
  
  "You saw the ventilator, too?"
  
  "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to
  have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a
  rat could hardly pass through."
  
  "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to
  Stoke Moran."
  
  "My dear Holmes!"
  
  "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her
  sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that
  suggested at once that there must be a communication between the
  two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been
  remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator."
  
  "But what harm can there be in that?"
  
  "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A
  ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the
  bed dies. Does not that strike you?"
  
  "I cannot as yet see any connection."
  
  "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?"
  
  "No."
  
  "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened
  like that before?"
  
  "I cannot say that I have."
  
  "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same
  relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may
  call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull."
  
  "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at.
  We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible
  crime."
  
  "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong
  he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge.
  Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession.
  This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall
  be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough
  before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet
  pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more
  cheerful."
  
  
  About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished,
  and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours
  passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of
  eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us.
  
  "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it
  comes from the middle window."
  
  As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord,
  explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance,
  and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A
  moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing
  in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us
  through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand.
  
  There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for
  unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way
  among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about
  to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel
  bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted
  child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and
  then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness.
  
  "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?"
  
  Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like
  a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low
  laugh and put his lips to my ear.
  
  "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon."
  
  I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There
  was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders
  at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when,
  after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I
  found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed
  the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes
  round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then
  creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered
  into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to
  distinguish the words:
  
  "The least sound would be fatal to our plans."
  
  I nodded to show that I had heard.
  
  "We must sit without light. He would see it through the
  ventilator."
  
  I nodded again.
  
  "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your
  pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of
  the bed, and you in that chair."
  
  I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table.
  
  Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon
  the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the
  stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left
  in darkness.
  
  How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a
  sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my
  companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same
  state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut
  off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness.
  
  From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at
  our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that
  the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the
  deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of
  an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and
  one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for
  whatever might befall.
  
  Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the
  direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was
  succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal.
  Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle
  sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the
  smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears.
  Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle,
  soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping
  continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes
  sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with
  his cane at the bell-pull.
  
  "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?"
  
  But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I
  heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my
  weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which
  my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face
  was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had
  ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when
  suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most
  horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder
  and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled
  in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the
  village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the
  sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I
  stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it
  had died away into the silence from which it rose.
  
  "What can it mean?" I gasped.
  
  "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps,
  after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will
  enter Dr. Roylott's room."
  
  With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the
  corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply
  from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his
  heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand.
  
  It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a
  dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant
  beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar.
  Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott
  clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding
  beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers.
  Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we
  had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his
  eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the
  ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with
  brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his
  head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion.
  
  "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes.
  
  I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began
  to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat
  diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent.
  
  "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in
  India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence
  does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls
  into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this
  creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to
  some place of shelter and let the county police know what has
  happened."
  
  As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap,
  and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from
  its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into
  the iron safe, which he closed upon it.
  
  Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of
  Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a
  narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling
  how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed
  her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow,
  of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the
  conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly
  playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn
  of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back
  next day.
  
  "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which
  shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from
  insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of
  the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to
  explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of
  by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an
  entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly
  reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me
  that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not
  come either from the window or the door. My attention was
  speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this
  ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The
  discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to
  the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was
  there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and
  coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me,
  and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was
  furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I
  was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of
  poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical
  test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless
  man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such
  a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be
  an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could
  distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where
  the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the
  whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning
  light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by
  the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned.
  He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he
  thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the
  rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the
  occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but
  sooner or later she must fall a victim.
  
  "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his
  room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in
  the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary
  in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the
  safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to
  finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic
  clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather
  hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant.
  Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in
  order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss
  as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the
  light and attacked it."
  
  "With the result of driving it through the ventilator."
  
  "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master
  at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and
  roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person
  it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr.
  Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to
  weigh very heavily upon my conscience."
  
  
  
  IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB
  
  Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr.
  Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy,
  there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his
  notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel
  Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a
  finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was
  so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that
  it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it
  gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of
  reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story
  has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but,
  like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when
  set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the
  facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears
  gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads
  on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a
  deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly
  served to weaken the effect.
  
  It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the
  events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned
  to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker
  Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally
  even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come
  and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I
  happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington
  Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of
  these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was
  never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send
  me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence.
  
  One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by
  the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come
  from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I
  dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases
  were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my
  old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door
  tightly behind him.
  
  "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his
  shoulder; "he's all right."
  
  "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was
  some strange creature which he had caged up in my room.
  
  "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him
  round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe
  and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the
  same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even
  giving me time to thank him.
  
  I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the
  table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a
  soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of
  his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all
  over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than
  five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but
  he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who
  was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his
  strength of mind to control.
  
  "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I
  have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by
  train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I
  might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me
  here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon
  the side-table."
  
  I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic
  engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name,
  style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have
  kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You
  are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself
  a monotonous occupation."
  
  "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and
  laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note,
  leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical
  instincts rose up against that laugh.
  
  "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out
  some water from a caraffe.
  
  It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical
  outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis
  is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very
  weary and pale-looking.
  
  "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped.
  
  "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water,
  and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks.
  
  "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would
  kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb
  used to be."
  
  He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even
  my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four
  protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the
  thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from
  the roots.
  
  "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have
  bled considerably."
  
  "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must
  have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that
  it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very
  tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig."
  
  "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon."
  
  "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own
  province."
  
  "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very
  heavy and sharp instrument."
  
  "A thing like a cleaver," said he.
  
  "An accident, I presume?"
  
  "By no means."
  
  "What! a murderous attack?"
  
  "Very murderous indeed."
  
  "You horrify me."
  
  I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered
  it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back
  without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time.
  
  "How is that?" I asked when I had finished.
  
  "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man.
  I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through."
  
  "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently
  trying to your nerves."
  
  "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police;
  but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing
  evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they
  believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I
  have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and,
  even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so
  vague that it is a question whether justice will be done."
  
  "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem
  which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you
  to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the
  official police."
  
  "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I
  should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of
  course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me
  an introduction to him?"
  
  "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself."
  
  "I should be immensely obliged to you."
  
  "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to
  have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?"
  
  "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story."
  
  "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an
  instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my
  wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my
  new acquaintance to Baker Street.
  
  Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his
  sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The
  Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed
  of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day
  before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the
  mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion,
  ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal.
  When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the
  sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of
  brandy and water within his reach.
  
  "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one,
  Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself
  absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are
  tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant."
  
  "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since
  the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has
  completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable
  time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar
  experiences."
  
  Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded
  expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat
  opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story
  which our visitor detailed to us.
  
  "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor,
  residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a
  hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my
  work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner &
  Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago,
  having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of
  money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in
  business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria
  Street.
  
  "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in
  business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so.
  During two years I have had three consultations and one small
  job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought
  me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from
  nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my
  little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to
  believe that I should never have any practice at all.
  
  "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the
  office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who
  wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with
  the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at
  his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle
  size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have
  ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose
  and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over
  his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his
  natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his
  step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly
  dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than
  thirty.
  
  "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent.
  'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man
  who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet
  and capable of preserving a secret.'
  
  "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an
  address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?'
  
  "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just
  at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both
  an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.'
  
  "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if
  I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional
  qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter
  that you wished to speak to me?'
  
  "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to
  the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute
  secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and
  of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than
  from one who lives in the bosom of his family.'
  
  "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely
  depend upon my doing so.'
  
  "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I
  had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye.
  
  "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last.
  
  "'Yes, I promise.'
  
  "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No
  reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?'
  
  "'I have already given you my word.'
  
  "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning
  across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was
  empty.
  
  "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are
  sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk
  in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to
  stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look.
  
  "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun
  to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man.
  Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from
  showing my impatience.
  
  "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time
  is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the
  words came to my lips.
  
  "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked.
  
  "'Most admirably.'
  
  "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I
  simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which
  has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon
  set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as
  that?'
  
  "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.'
  
  "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last
  train.'
  
  "'Where to?'
  
  "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders
  of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a
  train from Paddington which would bring you there at about
  11:15.'
  
  "'Very good.'
  
  "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.'
  
  "'There is a drive, then?'
  
  "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good
  seven miles from Eyford Station.'
  
  "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there
  would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop
  the night.'
  
  "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.'
  
  "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient
  hour?'
  
  "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to
  recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a
  young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the
  very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would
  like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do
  so.'
  
  "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they
  would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to
  accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to
  understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to
  do.'
  
  "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which
  we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I
  have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all
  laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from
  eavesdroppers?'
  
  "'Entirely.'
  
  "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that
  fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found
  in one or two places in England?'
  
  "'I have heard so.'
  
  "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small
  place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to
  discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my
  fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a
  comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two
  very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them,
  however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were
  absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was
  quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my
  interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value,
  but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I
  took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they
  suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little
  deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would
  enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been
  doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we
  erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already
  explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the
  subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it
  once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our
  little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts
  came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these
  fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you
  promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are
  going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?'
  
  "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not
  quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press
  in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out
  like gravel from a pit.'
  
  "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress
  the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing
  what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully
  into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I
  trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at
  Eyford at 11:15.'
  
  "'I shall certainly be there.'
  
  "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long,
  questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank
  grasp, he hurried from the room.
  
  "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very
  much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission
  which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was
  glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked
  had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that
  this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face
  and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon
  me, and I could not think that his explanation of the
  fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my
  coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell
  anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate
  a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having
  obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue.
  
  "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station.
  However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I
  reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the
  only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the
  platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed
  out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of
  the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a
  word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door
  of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either
  side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the
  horse could go."
  
  "One horse?" interjected Holmes.
  
  "Yes, only one."
  
  "Did you observe the colour?"
  
  "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the
  carriage. It was a chestnut."
  
  "Tired-looking or fresh?"
  
  "Oh, fresh and glossy."
  
  "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue
  your most interesting statement."
  
  "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel
  Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I
  should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the
  time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat
  at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than
  once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me
  with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good
  in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I
  tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we
  were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out
  nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now
  and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the
  journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the
  conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the
  road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive,
  and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang
  out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch
  which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of
  the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the
  most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that
  I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us,
  and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage
  drove away.
  
  "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled
  about looking for matches and muttering under his breath.
  Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a
  long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew
  broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she
  held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us.
  I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which
  the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich
  material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as
  though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a
  gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly
  fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered
  something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room
  from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the
  lamp in his hand.
  
  "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a
  few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a
  quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the
  centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel
  Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the
  door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and
  vanished into the darkness.
  
  "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my
  ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises
  on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked
  across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of
  the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded
  across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old
  clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise
  everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began
  to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were
  they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And
  where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was
  all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no
  idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns,
  were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded,
  after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness,
  that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room,
  humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling
  that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee.
  
  "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the
  utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman
  was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind
  her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and
  beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with
  fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one
  shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few
  whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back,
  like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her.
  
  "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to
  speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no
  good for you to do.'
  
  "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I
  cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.'
  
  "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass
  through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled
  and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and
  made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love
  of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too
  late!'
  
  "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to
  engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I
  thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of
  the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to
  go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried
  out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This
  woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout
  bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I
  cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention
  of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties
  when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps
  was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up
  her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and
  as noiselessly as she had come.
  
  "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man
  with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double
  chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson.
  
  "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the
  way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just
  now. I fear that you have felt the draught.'
  
  "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I
  felt the room to be a little close.'
  
  "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had
  better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I
  will take you up to see the machine.'
  
  "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.'
  
  "'Oh, no, it is in the house.'
  
  "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?'
  
  "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that.
  All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us
  know what is wrong with it.'
  
  "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the
  fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house,
  with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little
  low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the
  generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no
  signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster
  was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in
  green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an
  air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the
  lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon
  my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent
  man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at
  least a fellow-countryman.
  
  "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which
  he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three
  of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside,
  and the colonel ushered me in.
  
  "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and
  it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were
  to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the
  end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of
  many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns
  of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and
  multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine
  goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working
  of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will
  have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set
  it right.'
  
  "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very
  thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of
  exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and
  pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by
  the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed
  a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An
  examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was
  round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to
  fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause
  of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who
  followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical
  questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I
  had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the
  machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity.
  It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth
  was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose
  that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a
  purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a
  large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a
  crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was
  scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a
  muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the
  colonel looking down at me.
  
  "'What are you doing there?' he asked.
  
  "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as
  that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,'
  said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to
  your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it
  was used.'
  
  "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of
  my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in
  his grey eyes.
  
  "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He
  took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key
  in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it
  was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and
  shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!'
  
  "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my
  heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish
  of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp
  still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining
  the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming
  down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than
  myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a
  shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and
  dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let
  me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my
  cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with
  my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it
  flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend
  very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my
  face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to
  think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and
  yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black
  shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand
  erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope
  back to my heart.
  
  "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the
  walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw
  a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which
  broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For
  an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door
  which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself
  through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had
  closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few
  moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me
  how narrow had been my escape.
  
  "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and
  I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor,
  while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand,
  while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend
  whose warning I had so foolishly rejected.
  
  "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a
  moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste
  the so-precious time, but come!'
  
  "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to
  my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding
  stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we
  reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of
  two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which  we
  were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about
  her like one  who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door
  which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon
  was shining brightly.
  
  "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be
  that you can jump it.'
  
  "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the
  passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark
  rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a
  butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom,
  flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and
  wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be
  more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I
  hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between
  my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used,
  then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance.
  The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at
  the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round
  him and tried to hold him back.
  
  "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise
  after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be
  silent! Oh, he will be silent!'
  
  "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from
  her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me
  pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the
  window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and
  was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was
  conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the
  garden below.
  
  "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and
  rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I
  understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly,
  however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me.
  I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and
  then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and
  that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my
  handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my
  ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the
  rose-bushes.
  
  "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been
  a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was
  breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with
  dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded
  thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the
  particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with
  the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But
  to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house
  nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the
  hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a
  long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the
  very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were
  it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed
  during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream.
  
  "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning
  train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The
  same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I
  arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel
  Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a
  carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was
  there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three
  miles off.
  
  "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined
  to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the
  police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first
  to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to
  bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do
  exactly what you advise."
  
  We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to
  this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down
  from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he
  placed his cuttings.
  
  "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It
  appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this:
  'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged
  twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten
  o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was
  dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that
  the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy."
  
  "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the
  girl said."
  
  "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and
  desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should
  stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out
  pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well,
  every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall
  go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for
  Eyford."
  
  Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train
  together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village.
  There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector
  Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself.
  Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the
  seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford
  for its centre.
  
  "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of
  ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere
  near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir."
  
  "It was an hour's good drive."
  
  "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you
  were unconscious?"
  
  "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having
  been lifted and conveyed somewhere."
  
  "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have
  spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden.
  Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties."
  
  "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face
  in my life."
  
  "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I
  have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon
  it the folk that we are in search of are to be found."
  
  "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly.
  
  "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your
  opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is
  south, for the country is more deserted there."
  
  "And I say east," said my patient.
  
  "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are
  several quiet little villages up there."
  
  "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there,
  and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up
  any."
  
  "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty
  diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do
  you give your casting vote to?"
  
  "You are all wrong."
  
  "But we can't all be."
  
  "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the
  centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them."
  
  "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley.
  
  "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the
  horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that
  if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?"
  
  "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet
  thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature
  of this gang."
  
  "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale,
  and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the
  place of silver."
  
  "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work,"
  said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by
  the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could
  get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that
  showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this
  lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough."
  
  But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not
  destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into
  Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed
  up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and
  hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape.
  
  "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off
  again on its way.
  
  "Yes, sir!" said the station-master.
  
  "When did it break out?"
  
  "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse,
  and the whole place is in a blaze."
  
  "Whose house is it?"
  
  "Dr. Becher's."
  
  "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very
  thin, with a long, sharp nose?"
  
  The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an
  Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a
  better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him,
  a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as
  if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm."
  
  The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all
  hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low
  hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in
  front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in
  the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to
  keep the flames under.
  
  "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is
  the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That
  second window is the one that I jumped from."
  
  "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon
  them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which,
  when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls,
  though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to
  observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for
  your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are
  a good hundred miles off by now."
  
  And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this
  no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the
  sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a
  peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very
  bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but
  there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes'
  ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their
  whereabouts.
  
  The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements
  which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a
  newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor.
  About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and
  they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in,
  and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save
  some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of
  the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so
  dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored
  in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have
  explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been
  already referred to.
  
  How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to
  the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained
  forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a
  very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two
  persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other
  unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the
  silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his
  companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out
  of the way of danger.
  
  "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return
  once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I
  have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what
  have I gained?"
  
  "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of
  value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the
  reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your
  existence."
  
  
  
  X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR
  
  The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have
  long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles
  in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have
  eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the
  gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to
  believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to
  the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a
  considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no
  memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of
  this remarkable episode.
  
  It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I
  was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came
  home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table
  waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather
  had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and
  the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as
  a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence.
  With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had
  surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last,
  saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and
  lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the
  envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's
  noble correspondent could be.
  
  "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered.
  "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a
  fish-monger and a tide-waiter."
  
  "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he
  answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more
  interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social
  summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie."
  
  He broke the seal and glanced over the contents.
  
  "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all."
  
  "Not social, then?"
  
  "No, distinctly professional."
  
  "And from a noble client?"
  
  "One of the highest in England."
  
  "My dear fellow, I congratulate you."
  
  "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my
  client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his
  case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be
  wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the
  papers diligently of late, have you not?"
  
  "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in
  the corner. "I have had nothing else to do."
  
  "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I
  read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The
  latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent
  events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his
  wedding?"
  
  "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest."
  
  "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord
  St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn
  over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter.
  This is what he says:
  
  "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I
  may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I
  have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you
  in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in
  connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is
  acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no
  objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that
  it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in
  the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that
  time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of
  paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.'
  
  "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen,
  and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink
  upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes
  as he folded up the epistle.
  
  "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an
  hour."
  
  "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon
  the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in
  their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client
  is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of
  reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting
  down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham
  de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms:
  Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.'
  He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was
  Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The
  Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs.
  They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on
  the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in
  all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something
  more solid."
  
  "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I,
  "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as
  remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew
  that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the
  intrusion of other matters."
  
  "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square
  furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it
  was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your
  newspaper selections."
  
  "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal
  column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks
  back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if
  rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert
  St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty
  Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San
  Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all."
  
  "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long,
  thin legs towards the fire.
  
  "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society
  papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a
  call for protection in the marriage market, for the present
  free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home
  product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great
  Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across
  the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last
  week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by
  these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself
  for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has
  now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty
  Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss
  Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much
  attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child,
  and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to
  considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the
  future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has
  been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years,
  and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small
  estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress
  is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to
  make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a
  British peeress.'"
  
  "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning.
  
  "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post
  to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it
  would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen
  intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would
  return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been
  taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on
  Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had
  taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord
  Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices
  which appeared before the disappearance of the bride."
  
  "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start.
  
  "The vanishing of the lady."
  
  "When did she vanish, then?"
  
  "At the wedding breakfast."
  
  "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite
  dramatic, in fact."
  
  "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common."
  
  "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during
  the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt
  as this. Pray let me have the details."
  
  "I warn you that they are very incomplete."
  
  "Perhaps we may make them less so."
  
  "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a
  morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is
  headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding':
  
  "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the
  greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which
  have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as
  shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the
  previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to
  confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently
  floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush
  the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it
  that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what
  is a common subject for conversation.
  
  "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover
  Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the
  father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral,
  Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the
  younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia
  Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of
  Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been
  prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a
  woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to
  force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging
  that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a
  painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler
  and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house
  before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast
  with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and
  retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some
  comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that
  she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an
  ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the
  footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus
  apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress,
  believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his
  daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with
  the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with
  the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which
  will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very
  singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing
  had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There
  are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the
  police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the
  original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some
  other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange
  disappearance of the bride.'"
  
  "And is that all?"
  
  "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is
  a suggestive one."
  
  "And it is--"
  
  "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance,
  has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a
  danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom
  for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole
  case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the
  public press."
  
  "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would
  not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell,
  Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I
  have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not
  dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness,
  if only as a check to my own memory."
  
  "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open
  the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face,
  high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about
  the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose
  pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His
  manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue
  impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little
  bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off
  his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin
  upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of
  foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat,
  yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters.
  He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to
  right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his
  golden eyeglasses.
  
  "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray
  take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr.
  Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this
  matter over."
  
  "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine,
  Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you
  have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir,
  though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of
  society."
  
  "No, I am descending."
  
  "I beg pardon."
  
  "My last client of the sort was a king."
  
  "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?"
  
  "The King of Scandinavia."
  
  "What! Had he lost his wife?"
  
  "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the
  affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to
  you in yours."
  
  "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to
  my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may
  assist you in forming an opinion."
  
  "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public
  prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this
  article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride."
  
  Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it
  goes."
  
  "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could
  offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most
  directly by questioning you."
  
  "Pray do so."
  
  "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?"
  
  "In San Francisco, a year ago."
  
  "You were travelling in the States?"
  
  "Yes."
  
  "Did you become engaged then?"
  
  "No."
  
  "But you were on a friendly footing?"
  
  "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was
  amused."
  
  "Her father is very rich?"
  
  "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope."
  
  "And how did he make his money?"
  
  "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold,
  invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds."
  
  "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your
  wife's character?"
  
  The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down
  into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was
  twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she
  ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or
  mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than
  from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy,
  with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of
  traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She
  is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her
  resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the
  name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately
  cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I
  believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that
  anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her."
  
  "Have you her photograph?"
  
  "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the
  full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an
  ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect
  of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the
  exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he
  closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon.
  
  "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your
  acquaintance?"
  
  "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I
  met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now
  married her."
  
  "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?"
  
  "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family."
  
  "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a
  fait accompli?"
  
  "I really have made no inquiries on the subject."
  
  "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the
  wedding?"
  
  "Yes."
  
  "Was she in good spirits?"
  
  "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our
  future lives."
  
  "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the
  wedding?"
  
  "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the
  ceremony."
  
  "And did you observe any change in her then?"
  
  "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had
  ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident
  however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible
  bearing upon the case."
  
  "Pray let us have it, for all that."
  
  "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards
  the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it
  fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the
  gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not
  appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of
  the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our
  way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause."
  
  "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of
  the general public were present, then?"
  
  "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is
  open."
  
  "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?"
  
  "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a
  common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But
  really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point."
  
  "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less
  cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do
  on re-entering her father's house?"
  
  "I saw her in conversation with her maid."
  
  "And who is her maid?"
  
  "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California
  with her."
  
  "A confidential servant?"
  
  "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed
  her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they
  look upon these things in a different way."
  
  "How long did she speak to this Alice?"
  
  "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of."
  
  "You did not overhear what they said?"
  
  "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was
  accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she
  meant."
  
  "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your
  wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?"
  
  "She walked into the breakfast-room."
  
  "On your arm?"
  
  "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that.
  Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose
  hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She
  never came back."
  
  "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to
  her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a
  bonnet, and went out."
  
  "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in
  company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who
  had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that
  morning."
  
  "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady,
  and your relations to her."
  
  Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows.
  "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on
  a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have
  not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of
  complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes.
  Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and
  devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she
  heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the
  reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I
  feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to
  Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to
  push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my
  wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the
  possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police
  fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again.
  She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a
  row."
  
  "Did your wife hear all this?"
  
  "No, thank goodness, she did not."
  
  "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?"
  
  "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as
  so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid
  some terrible trap for her."
  
  "Well, it is a possible supposition."
  
  "You think so, too?"
  
  "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon
  this as likely?"
  
  "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly."
  
  "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray
  what is your own theory as to what took place?"
  
  "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I
  have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may
  say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of
  this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a
  social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous
  disturbance in my wife."
  
  "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?"
  
  "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I
  will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to
  without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion."
  
  "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said
  Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have
  nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the
  breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?"
  
  "We could see the other side of the road and the Park."
  
  "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer.
  I shall communicate with you."
  
  "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our
  client, rising.
  
  "I have solved it."
  
  "Eh? What was that?"
  
  "I say that I have solved it."
  
  "Where, then, is my wife?"
  
  "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply."
  
  Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take
  wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a
  stately, old-fashioned manner he departed.
  
  "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting
  it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I
  think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all
  this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the
  case before our client came into the room."
  
  "My dear Holmes!"
  
  "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I
  remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination
  served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial
  evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a
  trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example."
  
  "But I have heard all that you have heard."
  
  "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which
  serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some
  years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich
  the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these
  cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade!
  You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are
  cigars in the box."
  
  The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat,
  which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a
  black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated
  himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him.
  
  "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You
  look dissatisfied."
  
  "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage
  case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business."
  
  "Really! You surprise me."
  
  "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip
  through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day."
  
  "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his
  hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket.
  
  "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine."
  
  "In heaven's name, what for?"
  
  "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon."
  
  Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily.
  
  "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he
  asked.
  
  "Why? What do you mean?"
  
  "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in
  the one as in the other."
  
  Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you
  know all about it," he snarled.
  
  "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up."
  
  "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in
  the matter?"
  
  "I think it very unlikely."
  
  "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found
  this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the
  floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin
  shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked
  in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the
  top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master
  Holmes."
  
  "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air.
  "You dragged them from the Serpentine?"
  
  "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper.
  They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me
  that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off."
  
  "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found
  in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope
  to arrive at through this?"
  
  "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance."
  
  "I am afraid that you will find it difficult."
  
  "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I
  am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your
  deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as
  many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar."
  
  "And how?"
  
  "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the
  card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it
  down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will
  see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all
  along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora
  Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was
  responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her
  initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped
  into her hand at the door and which lured her within their
  reach."
  
  "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are
  very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a
  listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he
  gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important,"
  said he.
  
  "Ha! you find it so?"
  
  "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly."
  
  Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he
  shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!"
  
  "On the contrary, this is the right side."
  
  "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil
  over here."
  
  "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel
  bill, which interests me deeply."
  
  "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade.
  "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s.
  6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that."
  
  "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the
  note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I
  congratulate you again."
  
  "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in
  hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories.
  Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom
  of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them
  into the bag, and made for the door.
  
  "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival
  vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady
  St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any
  such person."
  
  Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me,
  tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and
  hurried away.
  
  He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on
  his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about
  outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must
  leave you to your papers for a little."
  
  It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had
  no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a
  confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked
  with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and
  presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean
  little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble
  lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold
  woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of
  ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries,
  my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian
  Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid
  for and were ordered to this address.
  
  Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the
  room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his
  eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his
  conclusions.
  
  "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands.
  
  "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five."
  
  "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I
  am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I
  fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs."
  
  It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in,
  dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very
  perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features.
  
  "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes.
  
  "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure.
  Have you good authority for what you say?"
  
  "The best possible."
  
  Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his
  forehead.
  
  "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of
  the family has been subjected to such humiliation?"
  
  "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any
  humiliation."
  
  "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint."
  
  "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the
  lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of
  doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she
  had no one to advise her at such a crisis."
  
  "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon,
  tapping his fingers upon the table.
  
  "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so
  unprecedented a position."
  
  "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have
  been shamefully used."
  
  "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps
  on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view
  of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here
  who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a
  lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to
  introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I
  think, you have already met."
  
  At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his
  seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand
  thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended
  dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out
  her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was
  as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was
  one which it was hard to resist.
  
  "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every
  cause to be."
  
  "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly.
  
  "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I
  should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of
  rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just
  didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't
  fall down and do a faint right there before the altar."
  
  "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave
  the room while you explain this matter?"
  
  "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman,
  "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business
  already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to
  hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man,
  clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner.
  
  "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here
  and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa
  was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I;
  but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile,
  while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to
  nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa
  wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took
  me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so
  he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything
  about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just
  fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and
  make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had
  as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of
  time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived.
  'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and
  then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your
  husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had
  fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting,
  that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek
  his fortune, and I went back to pa.
  
  "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then
  he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New
  Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a
  miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was
  my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was
  very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took
  me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a
  year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really
  dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London,
  and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt
  all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place
  in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank.
  
  "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done
  my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our
  actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make
  him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may
  imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I
  glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the
  first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked
  again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as
  if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I
  didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the
  words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my
  ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make
  a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to
  know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to
  tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper,
  and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on
  the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the
  note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a
  line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so.
  Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now
  to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct.
  
  "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California,
  and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but
  to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to
  have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before
  his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to
  run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten
  minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of
  the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park.
  I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman
  came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to
  me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little
  secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away
  from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and
  away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and
  that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank
  had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to
  'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to
  England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the
  very morning of my second wedding."
  
  "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name
  and the church but not where the lady lived."
  
  "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all
  for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I
  should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just
  sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It
  was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting
  round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So
  Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of
  them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away
  somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we
  should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good
  gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how
  he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very
  clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and
  that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so
  secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord
  St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at
  once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if
  I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very
  meanly of me."
  
  Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but
  had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this
  long narrative.
  
  "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most
  intimate personal affairs in this public manner."
  
  "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?"
  
  "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out
  his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him.
  
  "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us
  in a friendly supper."
  
  "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his
  Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent
  developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over
  them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a
  very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and
  stalked out of the room.
  
  "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your
  company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an
  American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the
  folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone
  years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens
  of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a
  quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes."
  
  "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our
  visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how
  simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight
  seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural
  than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing
  stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr.
  Lestrade of Scotland Yard."
  
  "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?"
  
  "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that
  the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony,
  the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of
  returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the
  morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that
  something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was
  out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she
  seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America
  because she had spent so short a time in this country that she
  could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence
  over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change
  her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a
  process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an
  American. Then who could this American be, and why should he
  possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might
  be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in
  rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got
  before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us
  of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so
  transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a
  bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very
  significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance
  means taking possession of that which another person has a prior
  claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had
  gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a
  previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter."
  
  "And how in the world did you find them?"
  
  "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held
  information in his hands the value of which he did not himself
  know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance,
  but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had
  settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels."
  
  "How did you deduce the select?"
  
  "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence
  for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive
  hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate.
  In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I
  learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an
  American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking
  over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I
  had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded
  to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate
  enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them
  some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be
  better in every way that they should make their position a little
  clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in
  particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I
  made him keep the appointment."
  
  "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was
  certainly not very gracious."
  
  "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be
  very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and
  wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of
  fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully
  and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in
  the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for
  the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away
  these bleak autumnal evenings."
  
  
  
  XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET
  
  "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking
  down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather
  sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone."
  
  My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands
  in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It
  was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day
  before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the
  wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed
  into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and
  on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as
  when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but
  was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer
  passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the
  Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman
  whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention.
  
  He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a
  massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was
  dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining
  hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet
  his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress
  and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little
  springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to
  set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and
  down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most
  extraordinary contortions.
  
  "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is
  looking up at the numbers of the houses."
  
  "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his
  hands.
  
  "Here?"
  
  "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I
  think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As
  he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and
  pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the
  clanging.
  
  A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still
  gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in
  his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and
  pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his
  body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the
  extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his
  feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we
  both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room.
  Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting
  beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy,
  soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ.
  
  "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he.
  "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have
  recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into
  any little problem which you may submit to me."
  
  The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting
  against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his
  brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us.
  
  "No doubt you think me mad?" said he.
  
  "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes.
  
  "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my
  reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might
  have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet
  borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man;
  but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have
  been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone.
  The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found
  out of this horrible affair."
  
  "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a
  clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen
  you."
  
  "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your
  ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder &
  Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street."
  
  The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior
  partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City
  of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the
  foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We
  waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced
  himself to tell his story.
  
  "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened
  here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure
  your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and
  hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this
  snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who
  takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the
  facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can.
  
  "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking
  business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative
  investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection
  and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means
  of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security
  is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction
  during the last few years, and there are many noble families to
  whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their
  pictures, libraries, or plate.
  
  "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a
  card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I
  saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps
  even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name
  which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest,
  noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the
  honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged
  at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry
  quickly through a disagreeable task.
  
  "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the
  habit of advancing money.'
  
  "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered.
  
  "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have
  50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a
  sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it
  a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my
  position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place
  one's self under obligations.'
  
  "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked.
  
  "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most
  certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you
  think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the
  money should be paid at once.'
  
  "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my
  own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be
  rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do
  it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must
  insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution
  should be taken.'
  
  "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a
  square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair.
  'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?'
  
  "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,'
  said I.
  
  "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft,
  flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery
  which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said
  he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The
  lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the
  sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my
  security.'
  
  "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some
  perplexity from it to my illustrious client.
  
  "'You doubt its value?' he asked.
  
  "'Not at all. I only doubt--'
  
  "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest
  about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely
  certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a
  pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?'
  
  "'Ample.'
  
  "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof
  of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I
  have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to
  refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to
  preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I
  need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any
  harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as
  serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the
  world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them.
  I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall
  call for it in person on Monday morning.'
  
  "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but,
  calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000
  pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the
  precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not
  but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility
  which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it
  was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any
  misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever
  consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter
  the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned
  once more to my work.
  
  "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave
  so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had
  been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how
  terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I
  determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always
  carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might
  never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a
  cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel
  with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs
  and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room.
  
  "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to
  thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep
  out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three
  maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose
  absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy
  Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few
  months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has
  always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has
  attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place.
  That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we
  believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way.
  
  "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it
  will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an
  only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr.
  Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am
  myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very
  likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I
  had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a
  moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it
  would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I
  meant it for the best.
  
  "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my
  business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild,
  wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the
  handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a
  member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming
  manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long
  purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards
  and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again
  to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his
  allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried
  more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he
  was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir
  George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again.
  
  "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George
  Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently
  brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could
  hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than
  Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been
  everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of
  great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far
  away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his
  cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that
  he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so,
  too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into
  character.
  
  "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but
  when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the
  world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my
  daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful,
  a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and
  gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know
  what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone
  against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for
  he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I
  think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it
  would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his
  whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late!
  
  "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and
  I shall continue with my miserable story.
  
  "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after
  dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious
  treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name
  of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am
  sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed.
  Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous
  coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it.
  
  "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur.
  
  "'In my own bureau.'
  
  "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the
  night.' said he.
  
  "'It is locked up,' I answered.
  
  "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I
  have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.'
  
  "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of
  what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with
  a very grave face.
  
  "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let
  me have 200 pounds?'
  
  "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too
  generous with you in money matters.'
  
  "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money,
  or else I can never show my face inside the club again.'
  
  "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried.
  
  "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,'
  said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money
  in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try
  other means.'
  
  "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the
  month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which
  he bowed and left the room without another word.
  
  "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my
  treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go
  round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I
  usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform
  myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself
  at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as
  I approached.
  
  "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little
  disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out
  to-night?'
  
  "'Certainly not.'
  
  "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she
  has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that
  it is hardly safe and should be stopped.'
  
  "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer
  it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?'
  
  "'Quite sure, dad.'
  
  "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom
  again, where I was soon asleep.
  
  "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may
  have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question
  me upon any point which I do not make clear."
  
  "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid."
  
  "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be
  particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety
  in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual.
  About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in
  the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an
  impression behind it as though a window had gently closed
  somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my
  horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in
  the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear,
  and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door.
  
  "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you
  touch that coronet?'
  
  "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy,
  dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the
  light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be
  wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry
  he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I
  snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with
  three of the beryls in it, was missing.
  
  "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have
  destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the
  jewels which you have stolen?'
  
  "'Stolen!' he cried.
  
  "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder.
  
  "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he.
  
  "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I
  call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to
  tear off another piece?'
  
  "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it
  any longer. I shall not say another word about this business,
  since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in
  the morning and make my own way in the world.'
  
  "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried
  half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to
  the bottom.'
  
  "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such
  as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to
  call the police, let the police find what they can.'
  
  "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my
  voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and,
  at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the
  whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the
  ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the
  investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a
  constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with
  his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge
  him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private
  matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was
  national property. I was determined that the law should have its
  way in everything.
  
  "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It
  would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the
  house for five minutes.'
  
  "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you
  have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position
  in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only
  my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at
  stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would
  convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell
  me what he had done with the three missing stones.
  
  "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught
  in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous.
  If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling
  us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.'
  
  "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered,
  turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened
  for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for
  it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search
  was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of
  every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed
  the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the
  wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our
  threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after
  going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to
  you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter.
  The police have openly confessed that they can at present make
  nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think
  necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My
  God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son
  in one night. Oh, what shall I do!"
  
  He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to
  and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got
  beyond words.
  
  Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows
  knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire.
  
  "Do you receive much company?" he asked.
  
  "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of
  Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No
  one else, I think."
  
  "Do you go out much in society?"
  
  "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for
  it."
  
  "That is unusual in a young girl."
  
  "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She
  is four-and-twenty."
  
  "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to
  her also."
  
  "Terrible! She is even more affected than I."
  
  "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?"
  
  "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet
  in his hands."
  
  "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of
  the coronet at all injured?"
  
  "Yes, it was twisted."
  
  "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to
  straighten it?"
  
  "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me.
  But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If
  his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?"
  
  "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie?
  His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several
  singular points about the case. What did the police think of the
  noise which awoke you from your sleep?"
  
  "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his
  bedroom door."
  
  "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door
  so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the
  disappearance of these gems?"
  
  "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture
  in the hope of finding them."
  
  "Have they thought of looking outside the house?"
  
  "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has
  already been minutely examined."
  
  "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now
  that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you
  or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you
  to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider
  what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came
  down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room,
  opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main
  force a small portion of it, went off to some other place,
  concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that
  nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six
  into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger
  of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?"
  
  "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of
  despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain
  them?"
  
  "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if
  you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together,
  and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into
  details."
  
  My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition,
  which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy
  were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I
  confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be
  as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such
  faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some
  grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted
  explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the
  southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his
  hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client
  appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope
  which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a
  desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway
  journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest
  residence of the great financier.
  
  Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing
  back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a
  snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates
  which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden
  thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges
  stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the
  tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the
  stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a
  public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing
  at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the
  front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden
  behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I
  went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should
  return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and
  a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height,
  slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against
  the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever
  seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were
  bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept
  silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of
  grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the
  more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong
  character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding
  my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand
  over his head with a sweet womanly caress.
  
  "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you
  not, dad?" she asked.
  
  "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom."
  
  "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's
  instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will
  be sorry for having acted so harshly."
  
  "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?"
  
  "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should
  suspect him."
  
  "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with
  the coronet in his hand?"
  
  "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take
  my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say
  no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in
  prison!"
  
  "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary!
  Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences
  to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman
  down from London to inquire more deeply into it."
  
  "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me.
  
  "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in
  the stable lane now."
  
  "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he
  hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir,
  that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth,
  that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime."
  
  "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may
  prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the
  snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing
  Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?"
  
  "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up."
  
  "You heard nothing yourself last night?"
  
  "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard
  that, and I came down."
  
  "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you
  fasten all the windows?"
  
  "Yes."
  
  "Were they all fastened this morning?"
  
  "Yes."
  
  "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked
  to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?"
  
  "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and
  who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet."
  
  "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her
  sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery."
  
  "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the
  banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with
  the coronet in his hands?"
  
  "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this
  girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I
  presume?"
  
  "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I
  met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom."
  
  "Do you know him?"
  
  "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round.
  His name is Francis Prosper."
  
  "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to
  say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?"
  
  "Yes, he did."
  
  "And he is a man with a wooden leg?"
  
  Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive
  black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you
  know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in
  Holmes' thin, eager face.
  
  "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall
  probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps
  I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up."
  
  He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at
  the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane.
  This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill
  with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs,"
  said he at last.
  
  The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little
  chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror.
  Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock.
  
  "Which key was used to open it?" he asked.
  
  "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the
  lumber-room."
  
  "Have you it here?"
  
  "That is it on the dressing-table."
  
  Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau.
  
  "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did
  not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must
  have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem
  he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the
  jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I
  have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge,
  where a corner holding three gems had been torn away.
  
  "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which
  corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I
  beg that you will break it off."
  
  The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying,"
  said he.
  
  "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but
  without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though
  I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my
  time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do
  you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would
  be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this
  happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard
  nothing of it?"
  
  "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me."
  
  "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think,
  Miss Holder?"
  
  "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity."
  
  "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?"
  
  "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt."
  
  "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary
  luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault
  if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your
  permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations
  outside."
  
  He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any
  unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an
  hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet
  heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever.
  
  "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr.
  Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my
  rooms."
  
  "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?"
  
  "I cannot tell."
  
  The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he
  cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?"
  
  "My opinion is in no way altered."
  
  "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was
  acted in my house last night?"
  
  "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow
  morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to
  make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to
  act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you
  place no limit on the sum I may draw."
  
  "I would give my fortune to have them back."
  
  "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then.
  Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here
  again before evening."
  
  It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up
  about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than
  I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward
  journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always
  glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in
  despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our
  rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in
  a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned
  up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he
  was a perfect sample of the class.
  
  "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass
  above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me,
  Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in
  this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I
  shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few
  hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard,
  sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this
  rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition.
  
  I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in
  excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his
  hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a
  cup of tea.
  
  "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on."
  
  "Where to?"
  
  "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time
  before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be
  late."
  
  "How are you getting on?"
  
  "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham
  since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a
  very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a
  good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get
  these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly
  respectable self."
  
  I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for
  satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled,
  and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He
  hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of
  the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his
  congenial hunt.
  
  I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so
  I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away
  for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that
  his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he
  came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there
  he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the
  other, as fresh and trim as possible.
  
  "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but
  you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this
  morning."
  
  "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be
  surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring."
  
  It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the
  change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally
  of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in,
  while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered
  with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than
  his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into
  the armchair which I pushed forward for him.
  
  "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said
  he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without
  a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured
  age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece,
  Mary, has deserted me."
  
  "Deserted you?"
  
  "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was
  empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to
  her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had
  married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was
  thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers
  in this note:
  
  "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you,
  and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune
  might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my
  mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must
  leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is
  provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will
  be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in
  death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.'
  
  "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it
  points to suicide?"
  
  "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible
  solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of
  your troubles."
  
  "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have
  learned something! Where are the gems?"
  
  "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for
  them?"
  
  "I would pay ten."
  
  "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter.
  And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book?
  Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds."
  
  With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes
  walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of
  gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table.
  
  With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up.
  
  "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!"
  
  The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and
  he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom.
  
  "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock
  Holmes rather sternly.
  
  "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it."
  
  "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that
  noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I
  should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to
  have one."
  
  "Then it was not Arthur who took them?"
  
  "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not."
  
  "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him
  know that the truth is known."
  
  "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an
  interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the
  story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was
  right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite
  clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his
  lips."
  
  "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary
  mystery!"
  
  "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached
  it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me
  to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding
  between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now
  fled together."
  
  "My Mary? Impossible!"
  
  "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither
  you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you
  admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most
  dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely
  desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece
  knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he
  had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she
  alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said,
  but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing
  him nearly every evening."
  
  "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an
  ashen face.
  
  "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night.
  Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room,
  slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which
  leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right
  through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the
  coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he
  bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but
  there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all
  other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had
  hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming
  downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you
  about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover,
  which was all perfectly true.
  
  "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but
  he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts.
  In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door,
  so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin
  walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared
  into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad
  slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what
  would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the
  room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw
  that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed
  down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and
  slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see
  what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the
  window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then
  closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close
  to where he stood hid behind the curtain.
  
  "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action
  without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the
  instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune
  this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it
  right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened
  the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane,
  where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George
  Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was
  a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the
  coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son
  struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something
  suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet
  in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your
  room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in
  the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you
  appeared upon the scene."
  
  "Is it possible?" gasped the banker.
  
  "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when
  he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not
  explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who
  certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He
  took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her
  secret."
  
  "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the
  coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have
  been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes!
  The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the
  scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!"
  
  "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went
  very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in
  the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since
  the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost
  to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but
  found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it,
  however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood
  and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed
  that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been
  disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was
  shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had
  waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time
  that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had
  already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed
  round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks,
  which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable
  lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in
  front of me.
  
  "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second
  double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked
  feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the
  latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the
  other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over
  the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed
  after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the
  hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while
  waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred
  yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round,
  where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle,
  and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me
  that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and
  another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been
  hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that
  the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue.
  
  "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the
  sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could
  at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the
  outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming
  in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what
  had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had
  brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had
  pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged
  at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which
  neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the
  prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So
  far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who
  was it brought him the coronet?
  
  "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the
  impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the
  truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down,
  so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were
  the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in
  their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his
  cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should
  retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful
  one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and
  how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture
  became a certainty.
  
  "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently,
  for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must
  feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your
  circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir
  George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil
  reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots
  and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur
  had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was
  safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his
  own family.
  
  "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took
  next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house,
  managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that
  his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at
  the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of
  his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and
  saw that they exactly fitted the tracks."
  
  "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening,"
  said Mr. Holder.
  
  "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home
  and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to
  play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert
  scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our
  hands were tied in the matter. I went and saw him. At first, of
  course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every
  particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a
  life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I
  clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he
  became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give
  him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That
  brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why,
  dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the
  three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had
  them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I
  set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000
  pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all
  was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after
  what I may call a really hard day's work."
  
  "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said
  the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but
  you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your
  skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I
  must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I
  have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my
  very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now."
  
  "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is
  wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that
  whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than
  sufficient punishment."
  
  
  
  XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES
  
  "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock
  Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily
  Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest
  manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is
  pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped
  this truth that in these little records of our cases which you
  have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say,
  occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much
  to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I
  have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been
  trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those
  faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made
  my special province."
  
  "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved
  from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my
  records."
  
  "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing
  cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood
  pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a
  disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred
  perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your
  statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing
  upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is
  really the only notable feature about the thing."
  
  "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter,"
  I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism
  which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my
  friend's singular character.
  
  "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as
  was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full
  justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a
  thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it
  is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should
  dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of
  lectures into a series of tales."
  
  It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after
  breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at
  Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of
  dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark,
  shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit
  and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for
  the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been
  silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the
  advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last,
  having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very
  sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings.
  
  "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he
  had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire,
  "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of
  these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself
  in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense,
  at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King
  of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the
  problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the
  incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are
  outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I
  fear that you may have bordered on the trivial."
  
  "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold
  to have been novel and of interest."
  
  "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant
  public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a
  compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of
  analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot
  blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at
  least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As
  to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an
  agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to
  young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched
  bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my
  zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across
  to me.
  
  It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and
  ran thus:
  
  "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether
  I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered
  to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I
  do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully,
                                                 "VIOLET HUNTER."
  
  "Do you know the young lady?" I asked.
  
  "Not I."
  
  "It is half-past ten now."
  
  "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring."
  
  "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You
  remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to
  be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation.
  It may be so in this case, also."
  
  "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved,
  for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question."
  
  As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room.
  She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face,
  freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a
  woman who has had her own way to make in the world.
  
  "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my
  companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange
  experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort
  from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be
  kind enough to tell me what I should do."
  
  "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything
  that I can to serve you."
  
  I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner
  and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching
  fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and
  his finger-tips together, to listen to her story.
  
  "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the
  family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel
  received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his
  children over to America with him, so that I found myself without
  a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but
  without success. At last the little money which I had saved began
  to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do.
  
  "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End
  called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in
  order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me.
  Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is
  really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office,
  and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom,
  and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers
  and sees whether she has anything which would suit them.
  
  "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office
  as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A
  prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy
  chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at
  her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very
  earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a
  jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper.
  
  "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better.
  Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his
  hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a
  comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at
  him.
  
  "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked.
  
  "'Yes, sir.'
  
  "'As governess?'
  
  "'Yes, sir.'
  
  "'And what salary do you ask?'
  
  "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence
  Munro.'
  
  "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his
  fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling
  passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with
  such attractions and accomplishments?'
  
  "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I.
  'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--'
  
  "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question.
  The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment
  of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are
  not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a
  considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have
  why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to
  accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me,
  madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.'
  
  "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was,
  such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman,
  however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face,
  opened a pocket-book and took out a note.
  
  "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant
  fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid
  the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies
  half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little
  expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.'
  
  "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so
  thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the
  advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something
  unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know
  a little more before I quite committed myself.
  
  "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I.
  
  "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles
  on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my
  dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.'
  
  "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would
  be.'
  
  "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if
  you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack!
  smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back
  in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again.
  
  "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement,
  but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was
  joking.
  
  "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single
  child?'
  
  "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he
  cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would
  suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided
  always that they were such commands as a lady might with
  propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?'
  
  "'I should be happy to make myself useful.'
  
  "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you
  know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress
  which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim.
  Heh?'
  
  "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words.
  
  "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to
  you?'
  
  "'Oh, no.'
  
  "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?'
  
  "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes,
  my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of
  chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of
  sacrificing it in this offhand fashion.
  
  "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been
  watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a
  shadow pass over his face as I spoke.
  
  "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a
  little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam,
  ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your
  hair?'
  
  "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly.
  
  "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a
  pity, because in other respects you would really have done very
  nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more
  of your young ladies.'
  
  "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers
  without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so
  much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting
  that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal.
  
  "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked.
  
  "'If you please, Miss Stoper.'
  
  "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the
  most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You
  can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such
  opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong
  upon the table, and I was shown out by the page.
  
  "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found
  little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the
  table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very
  foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and
  expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were
  at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few
  governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides,
  what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing
  it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was
  inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after
  I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go
  back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open
  when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it
  here and I will read it to you:
  
                         "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester.
  "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your
  address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have
  reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you
  should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of
  you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a
  year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which
  our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My
  wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would
  like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need
  not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one
  belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which
  would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting
  here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that
  need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no
  doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty
  during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain
  firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary
  may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child
  is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall
  meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train.
  Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.'
  
  "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and
  my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however,
  that before taking the final step I should like to submit the
  whole matter to your consideration."
  
  "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the
  question," said Holmes, smiling.
  
  "But you would not advise me to refuse?"
  
  "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to
  see a sister of mine apply for."
  
  "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?"
  
  "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself
  formed some opinion?"
  
  "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr.
  Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not
  possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the
  matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that
  he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an
  outbreak?"
  
  "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is
  the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a
  nice household for a young lady."
  
  "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!"
  
  "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what
  makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when
  they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some
  strong reason behind."
  
  "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would
  understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so
  much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me."
  
  "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that
  your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has
  come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel
  about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt
  or in danger--"
  
  "Danger! What danger do you foresee?"
  
  Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if
  we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a
  telegram would bring me down to your help."
  
  "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the
  anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire
  quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once,
  sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester
  to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both
  good-night and bustled off upon her way.
  
  "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending
  the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able
  to take care of herself."
  
  "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much
  mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past."
  
  It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled.
  A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts
  turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of
  human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual
  salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to
  something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether
  the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond
  my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat
  frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an
  abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his
  hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried
  impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would
  always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever
  have accepted such a situation.
  
  The telegram which we eventually received came late one night
  just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down
  to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently
  indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a
  test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came
  down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope,
  and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me.
  
  "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back
  to his chemical studies.
  
  The summons was a brief and urgent one.
  
  "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday
  to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end.  HUNTER."
  
  "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up.
  
  "I should wish to."
  
  "Just look it up, then."
  
  "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my
  Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30."
  
  "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my
  analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the
  morning."
  
  By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the
  old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers
  all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he
  threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal
  spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white
  clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining
  very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air,
  which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside,
  away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and
  grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light
  green of the new foliage.
  
  "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the
  enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street.
  
  But Holmes shook his head gravely.
  
  "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of
  a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with
  reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered
  houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them,
  and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their
  isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed
  there."
  
  "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these
  dear old homesteads?"
  
  "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief,
  Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest
  alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin
  than does the smiling and beautiful countryside."
  
  "You horrify me!"
  
  "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion
  can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no
  lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of
  a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among
  the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever
  so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is
  but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these
  lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part
  with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the
  deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on,
  year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this
  lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I
  should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of
  country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is
  not personally threatened."
  
  "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away."
  
  "Quite so. She has her freedom."
  
  "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?"
  
  "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would
  cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is
  correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we
  shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of
  the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has
  to tell."
  
  The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no
  distance from the station, and there we found the young lady
  waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch
  awaited us upon the table.
  
  "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It
  is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I
  should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me."
  
  "Pray tell us what has happened to you."
  
  "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr.
  Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into
  town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose."
  
  "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long
  thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen.
  
  "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole,
  with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is
  only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and
  I am not easy in my mind about them."
  
  "What can you not understand?"
  
  "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just
  as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and
  drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he
  said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself,
  for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all
  stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds
  round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which
  slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about
  a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs
  to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord
  Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in
  front of the hall door has given its name to the place.
  
  "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever,
  and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child.
  There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to
  us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is
  not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much
  younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think,
  while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their
  conversation I have gathered that they have been married about
  seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by
  the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr.
  Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them
  was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As
  the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite
  imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her
  father's young wife.
  
  "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as
  in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse.
  She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately
  devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey
  eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every
  little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her
  also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they
  seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow,
  this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the
  saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her
  in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of
  her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so
  utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small
  for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large.
  His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between
  savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving
  pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea
  of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning
  the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would
  rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he
  has little to do with my story."
  
  "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they
  seem to you to be relevant or not."
  
  "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one
  unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was
  the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a
  man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough,
  uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual
  smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been
  quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it.
  His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as
  silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most
  unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the
  nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one
  corner of the building.
  
  "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was
  very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after
  breakfast and whispered something to her husband.
  
  "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to
  you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut
  your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest
  iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue
  dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in
  your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should
  both be extremely obliged.'
  
  "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade
  of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it
  bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not
  have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr.
  and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which
  seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for
  me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching
  along the entire front of the house, with three long windows
  reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the
  central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was
  asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the
  other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest
  stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how
  comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs.
  Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so
  much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad,
  anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle
  suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the
  day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in
  the nursery.
  
  "Two days later this same performance was gone through under
  exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I
  sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny
  stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which
  he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and
  moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not
  fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for
  about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then
  suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and
  to change my dress.
  
  "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to
  what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly
  be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face
  away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire
  to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be
  impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been
  broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of
  the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst
  of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able
  with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I
  confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that
  was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I
  perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road,
  a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in
  my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are
  usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the
  railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I
  lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her
  eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing,
  but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my
  hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once.
  
  "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the
  road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.'
  
  "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked.
  
  "'No, I know no one in these parts.'
  
  "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to
  him to go away.'
  
  "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.'
  
  "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn
  round and wave him away like that.'
  
  "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew
  down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have
  not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor
  seen the man in the road."
  
  "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a
  most interesting one."
  
  "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may
  prove to be little relation between the different incidents of
  which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper
  Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands
  near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp
  rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving
  about.
  
  "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two
  planks. 'Is he not a beauty?'
  
  "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a
  vague figure huddled up in the darkness.
  
  "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start
  which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine,
  but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do
  anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then,
  so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose
  every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs
  upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your
  foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life
  is worth.'
  
  "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to
  look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning.
  It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the
  house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was
  standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was
  aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper
  beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It
  was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging
  jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly
  across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side.
  That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not
  think that any burglar could have done.
  
  "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as
  you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a
  great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the
  child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the
  furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things.
  There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones
  empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two
  with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was
  naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It
  struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight,
  so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very
  first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There
  was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never
  guess what it was. It was my coil of hair.
  
  "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint,
  and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing
  obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in
  the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the
  contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two
  tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was
  it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at
  all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer,
  and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that
  I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had
  locked.
  
  "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes,
  and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head.
  There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited
  at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of
  the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked.
  One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle
  coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on
  his face which made him a very different person to the round,
  jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his
  brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his
  temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me
  without a word or a look.
  
  "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the
  grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I
  could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four
  of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the
  fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I
  strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle
  came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever.
  
  "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you
  without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with
  business matters.'
  
  "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I,
  'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one
  of them has the shutters up.'
  
  "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled
  at my remark.
  
  "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my
  dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we
  have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever
  believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest
  in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and
  annoyance, but no jest.
  
  "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there
  was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know,
  I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity,
  though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a
  feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this
  place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's
  instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there,
  and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the
  forbidden door.
  
  "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that,
  besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to
  do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large
  black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been
  drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when
  I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at
  all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both
  downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an
  admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock,
  opened the door, and slipped through.
  
  "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and
  uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end.
  Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third
  of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and
  cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so
  thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through
  them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it
  had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked
  at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with
  stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was
  not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the
  shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from
  beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was
  a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the
  passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it
  might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room
  and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little
  slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad,
  unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My
  overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran
  as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the
  skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door,
  and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting
  outside.
  
  "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it
  must be when I saw the door open.'
  
  "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted.
  
  "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how
  caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened
  you, my dear young lady?'
  
  "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I
  was keenly on my guard against him.
  
  "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered.
  'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was
  frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in
  there!'
  
  "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly.
  
  "'Why, what did you think?' I asked.
  
  "'Why do you think that I lock this door?'
  
  "'I am sure that I do not know.'
  
  "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you
  see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner.
  
  "'I am sure if I had known--'
  
  "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over
  that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into
  a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a
  demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.'
  
  "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that
  I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing
  until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I
  thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without
  some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the
  woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible
  to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of
  course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was
  almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would
  send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the
  office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then
  returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my
  mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I
  remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of
  insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one
  in the household who had any influence with the savage creature,
  or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and
  lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you.
  I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this
  morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and
  Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the
  evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you
  all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you
  could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should
  do."
  
  Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story.
  My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in
  his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon
  his face.
  
  "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked.
  
  "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do
  nothing with him."
  
  "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?"
  
  "Yes."
  
  "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?"
  
  "Yes, the wine-cellar."
  
  "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very
  brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could
  perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not
  think you a quite exceptional woman."
  
  "I will try. What is it?"
  
  "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend
  and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will,
  we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might
  give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some
  errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate
  matters immensely."
  
  "I will do it."
  
  "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of
  course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been
  brought there to personate someone, and the real person is
  imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this
  prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice
  Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to
  America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height,
  figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very
  possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of
  course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you
  came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some
  friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore
  the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your
  laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture,
  that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer
  desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent
  him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly
  clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of
  the child."
  
  "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated.
  
  "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining
  light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the
  parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have
  frequently gained my first real insight into the character of
  parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is
  abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he
  derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or
  from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their
  power."
  
  "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A
  thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you
  have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to
  this poor creature."
  
  "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning
  man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall
  be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the
  mystery."
  
  We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we
  reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside
  public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining
  like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were
  sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been
  standing smiling on the door-step.
  
  "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes.
  
  A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is
  Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring
  on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates
  of Mr. Rucastle's."
  
  "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now
  lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black
  business."
  
  We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a
  passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss
  Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the
  transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but
  without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence
  Holmes' face clouded over.
  
  "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss
  Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put
  your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our
  way in."
  
  It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united
  strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There
  was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a
  basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner
  gone.
  
  "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty
  has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim
  off."
  
  "But how?"
  
  "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He
  swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the
  end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did
  it."
  
  "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not
  there when the Rucastles went away."
  
  "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and
  dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were
  he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it
  would be as well for you to have your pistol ready."
  
  The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at
  the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy
  stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the
  wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and
  confronted him.
  
  "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?"
  
  The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open
  skylight.
  
  "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies
  and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll
  serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he
  could go.
  
  "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter.
  
  "I have my revolver," said I.
  
  "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed
  down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we
  heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a
  horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An
  elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out
  at a side door.
  
  "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been
  fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!"
  
  Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with
  Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its
  black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and
  screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and
  it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great
  creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and
  carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid
  him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered
  Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to
  relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door
  opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room.
  
  "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter.
  
  "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he
  went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know
  what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains
  were wasted."
  
  "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs.
  Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else."
  
  "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know."
  
  "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several
  points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark."
  
  "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done
  so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's
  police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the
  one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend
  too.
  
  "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time
  that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no
  say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until
  after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could
  learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so
  quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them
  but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was
  safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming
  forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then
  her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to
  sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use
  her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until
  she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then
  she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her
  beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her
  young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be."
  
  "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough
  to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce
  all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this
  system of imprisonment?"
  
  "Yes, sir."
  
  "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of
  the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler."
  
  "That was it, sir."
  
  "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should
  be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain
  arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your
  interests were the same as his."
  
  "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said
  Mrs. Toller serenely.
  
  "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no
  want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment
  when your master had gone out."
  
  "You have it, sir, just as it happened."
  
  "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for
  you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And
  here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think,
  Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester,
  as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a
  questionable one."
  
  And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the
  copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but
  was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of
  his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who
  probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it
  difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were
  married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their
  flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in
  the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend
  Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further
  interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one
  of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at
  Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success.
  