initial commit

.gitignore

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+*.gem
+.bundle
+.sass-cache
+_site
+Gemfile.lock

Gemfile

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+# frozen_string_literal: true
+
+source "https://rubygems.org"
+gemspec

LICENSE.txt

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+The MIT License (MIT)
+
+Copyright (c) 2018 Pat Dryburgh
+
+Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
+of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
+in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
+to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
+copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
+furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
+
+The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
+all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
+
+THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
+IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
+FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
+AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
+LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
+OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
+THE SOFTWARE.

README.md

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+# hitchens
+
+Welcome to your new Jekyll theme! In this directory, you'll find the files you need to be able to package up your theme into a gem. Put your layouts in `_layouts`, your includes in `_includes`, your sass files in `_sass` and any other assets in `assets`.
+
+To experiment with this code, add some sample content and run `bundle exec jekyll serve` – this directory is setup just like a Jekyll site!
+
+TODO: Delete this and the text above, and describe your gem
+
+
+## Installation
+
+Add this line to your Jekyll site's `Gemfile`:
+
+```ruby
+gem "hitchens"
+```
+
+And add this line to your Jekyll site's `_config.yml`:
+
+```yaml
+theme: hitchens
+```
+
+And then execute:
+
+    $ bundle
+
+Or install it yourself as:
+
+    $ gem install hitchens
+
+## Usage
+
+TODO: Write usage instructions here. Describe your available layouts, includes, sass and/or assets.
+
+## Contributing
+
+Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/[USERNAME]/hello. This project is intended to be a safe, welcoming space for collaboration, and contributors are expected to adhere to the [Contributor Covenant](http://contributor-covenant.org) code of conduct.
+
+## Development
+
+To set up your environment to develop this theme, run `bundle install`.
+
+Your theme is setup just like a normal Jekyll site! To test your theme, run `bundle exec jekyll serve` and open your browser at `http://localhost:4000`. This starts a Jekyll server using your theme. Add pages, documents, data, etc. like normal to test your theme's contents. As you make modifications to your theme and to your content, your site will regenerate and you should see the changes in the browser after a refresh, just like normal.
+
+When your theme is released, only the files in `_layouts`, `_includes`, `_sass` and `assets` tracked with Git will be bundled.
+To add a custom directory to your theme-gem, please edit the regexp in `hitchens.gemspec` accordingly.
+
+## License
+
+The theme is available as open source under the terms of the [MIT License](https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT).
+

_config.yml

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+# Welcome to Jekyll!
+#
+# This config file is meant for settings that affect your whole blog, values
+# which you are expected to set up once and rarely edit after that. If you find
+# yourself editing this file very often, consider using Jekyll's data files
+# feature for the data you need to update frequently.
+#
+# For technical reasons, this file is *NOT* reloaded automatically when you use
+# 'bundle exec jekyll serve'. If you change this file, please restart the server process.
+
+# Site settings
+# These are used to personalize your new site. If you look in the HTML files,
+# you will see them accessed via {{ site.title }}, {{ site.email }}, and so on.
+# You can create any custom variable you would like, and they will be accessible
+# in the templates via {{ site.myvariable }}.
+title: Hitchens
+email: your-email@example.com
+description: >- # this means to ignore newlines until "baseurl:"
+  An inarguably well-designed Jekyll theme.
+baseurl: "" # the subpath of your site, e.g. /blog
+url: "" # the base hostname & protocol for your site, e.g. http://example.com
+twitter_username: jekyllrb
+github_username:  jekyll
+
+# Build settings
+markdown: kramdown
+
+# Exclude from processing.
+# The following items will not be processed, by default. Create a custom list
+# to override the default setting.
+# exclude:
+#   - Gemfile
+#   - Gemfile.lock
+#   - node_modules
+#   - vendor/bundle/
+#   - vendor/cache/
+#   - vendor/gems/
+#   - vendor/ruby/

_layouts/default.html

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+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html>
+  <head>
+    
+    <meta charset="utf-8">
+    <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge,chrome=1">
+    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width">
+    
+    <title>{{ site.title }} {{ page.title }}</title>
+
+    <link rel="stylesheet" href="{{ '/assets/css/main.css' | prepend: site.baseurl | apend: site.time }}">
+
+  </head>
+  <body>
+
+    {{ content }}
+
+  </body>
+</html>

_layouts/home.html

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+---
+layout: default
+---
+
+<header class="site-masthead">
+  <h1>
+    {{ site.title }}
+  </h1>
+  <h2>
+    {{ site.description }}
+  </h2>
+</header>
+
+<main class="home">
+
+  <h1>
+    Contents
+  </h1>
+
+  <ul class="post-list">
+    {% for post in site.posts %}
+      <li>
+        <a href="{{ post.url }}" class="post-link">
+          <span class="post-title">
+            {{ post.title }}
+          </span>
+          <span class="post-date">
+            {{ post.date | date: "%b %-d, '%y" }}
+          </span>
+        </a>
+      </li>
+    {% endfor %}
+  </ul>
+
+</main>

_layouts/page.html

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+---
+layout: default
+---
+
+{{ content }}

_layouts/post.html

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+---
+layout: default
+---
+
+<a href="{{ "/" | prepend: site.baseurl }}" class="back-link">
+  &#10094; Home
+</a>
+
+<article>
+
+  <h1>
+    {{ page.title }}
+  </h1>
+
+  {{ content }}
+
+  <div class="article-meta">
+    <div>{{ page.author }}</div>
+    <div class="post-date">{{ page.date | date: "%B %-d, %Y" }}</div>
+  </div>
+
+</article>

_posts/2001-09-20-address-to-the-nation-george-w-bush.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: "Address to the Nation"
+categories: speeches
+speaker: "George W. Bush"
+---
+
+# Address to the Nation
+by George W. Bush on September 20, 2001
+
+Mr. Speaker, Mr. President Pro Tempore, members of Congress, and fellow Americans:
+
+In the normal course of events, Presidents come to this chamber to report on the state of the Union. Tonight, no such report is needed. It has already been delivered by the American people.
+
+We have seen it in the courage of passengers, who rushed terrorists to save others on the ground -- passengers like an exceptional man named Todd Beamer. And would you please help me to welcome his wife, Lisa Beamer, here tonight. (Applause.)
+
+We have seen the state of our Union in the endurance of rescuers, working past exhaustion. We have seen the unfurling of flags, the lighting of candles, the giving of blood, the saying of prayers -- in English, Hebrew, and Arabic. We have seen the decency of a loving and giving people who have made the grief of strangers their own.
+My fellow citizens, for the last nine days, the entire world has seen for itself the state of our Union -- and it is strong. (Applause.)
+
+Tonight we are a country awakened to danger and called to defend freedom. Our grief has turned to anger, and anger to resolution. Whether we bring our enemies to justice, or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done. (Applause.)
+
+I thank the Congress for its leadership at such an important time. All of America was touched on the evening of the tragedy to see Republicans and Democrats joined together on the steps of this Capitol, singing "God Bless America." And you did more than sing; you acted, by delivering $40 billion to rebuild our communities and meet the needs of our military.
+
+Speaker Hastert, Minority Leader Gephardt, Majority Leader Daschle and Senator Lott, I thank you for your friendship, for your leadership and for your service to our country. (Applause.)
+
+And on behalf of the American people, I thank the world for its outpouring of support. America will never forget the sounds of our National Anthem playing at Buckingham Palace, on the streets of Paris, and at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate.
+
+We will not forget South Korean children gathering to pray outside our embassy in Seoul, or the prayers of sympathy offered at a mosque in Cairo. We will not forget moments of silence and days of mourning in Australia and Africa and Latin America.
+
+Nor will we forget the citizens of 80 other nations who died with our own: dozens of Pakistanis; more than 130 Israelis; more than 250 citizens of India; men and women from El Salvador, Iran, Mexico and Japan; and hundreds of British citizens. America has no truer friend than Great Britain. (Applause.) Once again, we are joined together in a great cause -- so honored the British Prime Minister has crossed an ocean to show his unity of purpose with America. Thank you for coming, friend. (Applause.)
+
+On September the 11th, enemies of freedom committed an act of war against our country. Americans have known wars -- but for the past 136 years, they have been wars on foreign soil, except for one Sunday in 1941. Americans have known the casualties of war -- but not at the center of a great city on a peaceful morning. Americans have known surprise attacks -- but never before on thousands of civilians. All of this was brought upon us in a single day -- and night fell on a different world, a world where freedom itself is under attack.
+
+Americans have many questions tonight. Americans are asking: Who attacked our country? The evidence we have gathered all points to a collection of loosely affiliated terrorist organizations known as al Qaeda. They are the same murderers indicted for bombing American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, and responsible for bombing the USS Cole.
+
+Al Qaeda is to terror what the mafia is to crime. But its goal is not making money; its goal is remaking the world -- and imposing its radical beliefs on people everywhere.
+
+The terrorists practice a fringe form of Islamic extremism that has been rejected by Muslim scholars and the vast majority of Muslim clerics -- a fringe movement that perverts the peaceful teachings of Islam. The terrorists' directive commands them to kill Christians and Jews, to kill all Americans, and make no distinction among military and civilians, including women and children.
+
+This group and its leader -- a person named Osama bin Laden -- are linked to many other organizations in different countries, including the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. There are thousands of these terrorists in more than 60 countries. They are recruited from their own nations and neighborhoods and brought to camps in places like Afghanistan, where they are trained in the tactics of terror. They are sent back to their homes or sent to hide in countries around the world to plot evil and destruction.
+The leadership of al Qaeda has great influence in Afghanistan and supports the Taliban regime in controlling most of that country. In Afghanistan, we see al Qaeda's vision for the world.
+
+Afghanistan's people have been brutalized -- many are starving and many have fled. Women are not allowed to attend school. You can be jailed for owning a television. Religion can be practiced only as their leaders dictate. A man can be jailed in Afghanistan if his beard is not long enough.
+
+The United States respects the people of Afghanistan -- after all, we are currently its largest source of humanitarian aid -- but we condemn the Taliban regime. (Applause.) It is not only repressing its own people, it is threatening people everywhere by sponsoring and sheltering and supplying terrorists. By aiding and abetting murder, the Taliban regime is committing murder.
+
+And tonight, the United States of America makes the following demands on the Taliban: Deliver to United States authorities all the leaders of al Qaeda who hide in your land. (Applause.) Release all foreign nationals, including American citizens, you have unjustly imprisoned. Protect foreign journalists, diplomats and aid workers in your country. Close immediately and permanently every terrorist training camp in Afghanistan, and hand over every terrorist, and every person in their support structure, to appropriate authorities. (Applause.) Give the United States full access to terrorist training camps, so we can make sure they are no longer operating.
+These demands are not open to negotiation or discussion. (Applause.) The Taliban must act, and act immediately. They will hand over the terrorists, or they will share in their fate.
+
+I also want to speak tonight directly to Muslims throughout the world. We respect your faith. It's practiced freely by many millions of Americans, and by millions more in countries that America counts as friends. Its teachings are good and peaceful, and those who commit evil in the name of Allah blaspheme the name of Allah. (Applause.) The terrorists are traitors to their own faith, trying, in effect, to hijack Islam itself. The enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends; it is not our many Arab friends. Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists, and every government that supports them. (Applause.)
+
+Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated. (Applause.)
+
+Americans are asking, why do they hate us? They hate what we see right here in this chamber -- a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms -- our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.
+
+They want to overthrow existing governments in many Muslim countries, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. They want to drive Israel out of the Middle East. They want to drive Christians and Jews out of vast regions of Asia and Africa.
+
+These terrorists kill not merely to end lives, but to disrupt and end a way of life. With every atrocity, they hope that America grows fearful, retreating from the world and forsaking our friends. They stand against us, because we stand in their way.
+
+We are not deceived by their pretenses to piety. We have seen their kind before. They are the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century. By sacrificing human life to serve their radical visions -- by abandoning every value except the will to power -- they follow in the path of fascism, and Nazism, and totalitarianism. And they will follow that path all the way, to where it ends: in history's unmarked grave of discarded lies. (Applause.)
+
+Americans are asking: How will we fight and win this war? We will direct every resource at our command -- every means of diplomacy, every tool of intelligence, every instrument of law enforcement, every financial influence, and every necessary weapon of war -- to the disruption and to the defeat of the global terror network.
+This war will not be like the war against Iraq a decade ago, with a decisive liberation of territory and a swift conclusion. It will not look like the air war above Kosovo two years ago, where no ground troops were used and not a single American was lost in combat.
+
+Our response involves far more than instant retaliation and isolated strikes. Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign, unlike any other we have ever seen. It may include dramatic strikes, visible on TV, and covert operations, secret even in success. We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place, until there is no refuge or no rest. And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. (Applause.) From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime.
+
+Our nation has been put on notice: We are not immune from attack. We will take defensive measures against terrorism to protect Americans. Today, dozens of federal departments and agencies, as well as state and local governments, have responsibilities affecting homeland security. These efforts must be coordinated at the highest level. So tonight I announce the creation of a Cabinet-level position reporting directly to me -- the Office of Homeland Security.
+
+And tonight I also announce a distinguished American to lead this effort, to strengthen American security: a military veteran, an effective governor, a true patriot, a trusted friend -- Pennsylvania's Tom Ridge. (Applause.) He will lead, oversee and coordinate a comprehensive national strategy to safeguard our country against terrorism, and respond to any attacks that may come.
+
+These measures are essential. But the only way to defeat terrorism as a threat to our way of life is to stop it, eliminate it, and destroy it where it grows. (Applause.)
+
+Many will be involved in this effort, from FBI agents to intelligence operatives to the reservists we have called to active duty. All deserve our thanks, and all have our prayers. And tonight, a few miles from the damaged Pentagon, I have a message for our military: Be ready. I've called the Armed Forces to alert, and there is a reason. The hour is coming when America will act, and you will make us proud. (Applause.)
+
+This is not, however, just America's fight. And what is at stake is not just America's freedom. This is the world's fight. This is civilization's fight. This is the fight of all who believe in progress and pluralism, tolerance and freedom.
+
+We ask every nation to join us. We will ask, and we will need, the help of police forces, intelligence services, and banking systems around the world. The United States is grateful that many nations and many international organizations have already responded -- with sympathy and with support. Nations from Latin America, to Asia, to Africa, to Europe, to the Islamic world. Perhaps the NATO Charter reflects best the attitude of the world: An attack on one is an attack on all.
+
+The civilized world is rallying to America's side. They understand that if this terror goes unpunished, their own cities, their own citizens may be next. Terror, unanswered, can not only bring down buildings, it can threaten the stability of legitimate governments. And you know what -- we're not going to allow it. (Applause.)
+
+Americans are asking: What is expected of us? I ask you to live your lives, and hug your children. I know many citizens have fears tonight, and I ask you to be calm and resolute, even in the face of a continuing threat.
+I ask you to uphold the values of America, and remember why so many have come here. We are in a fight for our principles, and our first responsibility is to live by them. No one should be singled out for unfair treatment or unkind words because of their ethnic background or religious faith. (Applause.)
+
+I ask you to continue to support the victims of this tragedy with your contributions. Those who want to give can go to a central source of information, libertyunites.org, to find the names of groups providing direct help in New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
+
+The thousands of FBI agents who are now at work in this investigation may need your cooperation, and I ask you to give it.
+
+I ask for your patience, with the delays and inconveniences that may accompany tighter security; and for your patience in what will be a long struggle.
+
+I ask your continued participation and confidence in the American economy. Terrorists attacked a symbol of American prosperity. They did not touch its source. America is successful because of the hard work, and creativity, and enterprise of our people. These were the true strengths of our economy before September 11th, and they are our strengths today. (Applause.)
+
+And, finally, please continue praying for the victims of terror and their families, for those in uniform, and for our great country. Prayer has comforted us in sorrow, and will help strengthen us for the journey ahead.
+Tonight I thank my fellow Americans for what you have already done and for what you will do. And ladies and gentlemen of the Congress, I thank you, their representatives, for what you have already done and for what we will do together.
+
+Tonight, we face new and sudden national challenges. We will come together to improve air safety, to dramatically expand the number of air marshals on domestic flights, and take new measures to prevent hijacking. We will come together to promote stability and keep our airlines flying, with direct assistance during this emergency. (Applause.)
+
+We will come together to give law enforcement the additional tools it needs to track down terror here at home. (Applause.) We will come together to strengthen our intelligence capabilities to know the plans of terrorists before they act, and find them before they strike. (Applause.)
+
+We will come together to take active steps that strengthen America's economy, and put our people back to work.
+Tonight we welcome two leaders who embody the extraordinary spirit of all New Yorkers: Governor George Pataki, and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. (Applause.) As a symbol of America's resolve, my administration will work with Congress, and these two leaders, to show the world that we will rebuild New York City. (Applause.)
+
+After all that has just passed -- all the lives taken, and all the possibilities and hopes that died with them -- it is natural to wonder if America's future is one of fear. Some speak of an age of terror. I know there are struggles ahead, and dangers to face. But this country will define our times, not be defined by them. As long as the United States of America is determined and strong, this will not be an age of terror; this will be an age of liberty, here and across the world. (Applause.)
+
+Great harm has been done to us. We have suffered great loss. And in our grief and anger we have found our mission and our moment. Freedom and fear are at war. The advance of human freedom -- the great achievement of our time, and the great hope of every time -- now depends on us. Our nation -- this generation -- will lift a dark threat of violence from our people and our future. We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage. We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail. (Applause.)
+
+It is my hope that in the months and years ahead, life will return almost to normal. We'll go back to our lives and routines, and that is good. Even grief recedes with time and grace. But our resolve must not pass. Each of us will remember what happened that day, and to whom it happened. We'll remember the moment the news came -- where we were and what we were doing. Some will remember an image of a fire, or a story of rescue. Some will carry memories of a face and a voice gone forever.
+
+And I will carry this: It is the police shield of a man named George Howard, who died at the World Trade Center trying to save others. It was given to me by his mom, Arlene, as a proud memorial to her son. This is my reminder of lives that ended, and a task that does not end. (Applause.)
+
+I will not forget this wound to our country or those who inflicted it. I will not yield; I will not rest; I will not relent in waging this struggle for freedom and security for the American people.
+
+The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain. Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them. (Applause.)
+
+Fellow citizens, we'll meet violence with patient justice -- assured of the rightness of our cause, and confident of the victories to come. In all that lies before us, may God grant us wisdom, and may He watch over the United States of America.
+
+Thank you.

_posts/2008-09-08-america-and-the-spirit-of-volunteerism-george-w-bush.md

@@ -0,0 +1,106 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: "America and the Spirit of Volunteerism"
+categories: speeches
+speaker: "George W. Bush"
+date: 2008-09-08
+author: George W. Bush
+---
+
+Thank you, all. Please be seated. Welcome to the South Ground of the White House. It is a joy to be here with members of the armies of compassion. I'm really glad you're here and I appreciate your inspiration to our fellow citizens. I believe you are a constant reminder of the true source of our nation's strength, which is the good hearts and souls of the American people.
+
+We have seen the good hearts of our people over the last week as caring volunteers have helped their fellow citizens through Hurricane Gustav and Tropical Storm Hanna. The Red Cross, which provides a vital role in helping the relief efforts and recovery efforts, has been spending millions of dollars to provide shelter and food for evacuees and to help with the clean-up efforts. Yet charitable contributions have not kept pace with their expenses, and I hope our fellow citizens will support the Red Cross, particularly as Hurricane Ike and other storms develop over the Gulf Coast. You can help by going to the Red Cross's website -- redcross.org -- and make a vital contribution to help our fellow citizens.
+
+I appreciate the fact that those here represent the hundreds of thousands of our citizens who answered the call to love a neighbor like we'd like to be loved ourselves. I appreciate the fact that you and others lift up souls, one person at a time. You strengthen the foundation of our democracy, which is the engagement of our people. I want to thank you for what you do. God bless you and welcome. (Applause.)
+
+I thank Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, Department of the Interior, and Patricia, who have joined us; Secretary of Commerce, Carlos Gutierrez; Secretary of Transportation, Mary Peters; Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, welcome Madame Congresswoman, thanks for coming. I appreciate Stephen Goldsmith, the Chairman of the Corporation for National and Community Service; Jack Hawkins, Director of Volunteers for Prosperity; Ron Tschetter, who is the Director of the Peace Corps -- (applause) -- I knew that was coming. (Laughter.) Jean Case, the Chairman of the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation and members of that council.
+
+I appreciate my buddy, Michael W. Smith, who is going to play a couple of songs for us here. (Applause.) And his wife, Debbie.  I want to thank student and school administrators and board members from the LEAGUE that are here today. These are students from schools all across the country. (Applause.) We are glad you are here.
+
+With us is the 2007 Spirit of Hope Award Recipient. This is the military's way of honoring people who have given back to their communities. Giovanni Balingit -- Giovanni, welcome; thank you, sir; congratulations to you. (Applause.) I want to thank all those who are here in the United States military. Thank you for wearing the uniform of the United States. (Applause.)
+
+But most of all, thanks for coming. I really appreciate you taking time out to come by and let me say hello to you.
+
+In my first inaugural address, I challenged all Americans to be "citizens, not spectators ... responsible citizens, building communities of service and a nation of character."
+
+Eight months later Americans were tested by the worst attack on our nation. In the midst of chaos and sorrow, Americans responded with the -- with characteristic courage and grace. It was a remarkable moment in our country. It really was, when you think about it. Rescue workers wrote their Social Security numbers on their arms and then rushed into buildings. Citizens became members of ambulance teams. And people from all across the country poured into New York City to help.
+
+The terrorists who attacked our country on September the 11th didn't understand our country at all. Evil may crush concrete and twist steel, but it can never break the spirit of the American people. (Applause.)
+
+In the weeks and months after the attacks, inspiring acts continued to unfold all across the country. I'm sure you heard the stories, just like I did. Men and women of our armed forces accepted dangerous new duties, and a lot of folks stepped forward to volunteer to protect our fellow citizens. But the desire to serve reached far beyond the military. Millions of Americans were -- really wanted to help our country recover.
+
+And so to tap into that spirit, I called on every American to spend at least 4,000 hours -- or two years in the course of a lifetime -- to serve our nation through acts of compassion. Some said that's acting -- asking a lot for the country, and they were right -- and they were right. Two years during a lifetime is a lot to give. But the truth of the matter is, citizens who do give realize that they become enriched just like those folks that they're helping.
+
+To empower Americans looking to help, we launched what's called the USA Freedom Corps.  The goal of the USA Freedom Corps was to connect Americans with opportunities to serve our country, to foster a culture of citizenship and responsibility and service. Over the last six years, USA Freedom Corps has met these goals.
+
+One way we helped was to launch a web site called volunteer.gov, which is the largest clearinghouse of volunteer opportunities in America. In other words, we used high-tech innovations to be able to channel people's desire to serve in a constructive way.
+
+And so this government website directs people to private charities, or local churches, or Habitat for Humanity drives, or Meals on Wheels -- just opportunities to serve their neighbor.  We can't put love in somebody's heart, but we certainly can help somebody channel their love. And that was the purpose of the website.
+
+And you can search my hometown. They tell me that if you get on Crawford, Texas, you'll find that the local Humane Society seeks volunteer pet groomers -- which makes Barney really nervous. (Laughter.)
+
+This is just one of 4 million volunteer opportunities on the USA Freedom Corps web site. Isn't that interesting? There are 4 million opportunities for somebody who wants to serve to say, here's how I can help. And so I urge our fellow citizens to go to the website and find out if there's not something that'll interest you, something that'll give you a chance to serve something greater than yourself.
+
+USA Freedom Corps fosters a culture of service by encouraging the private sector to step forward. We got what we call the pro bono challenge, which encourages corporate professionals to donate their services to charities and nonprofits. That makes a lot of sense, doesn't it, to encourage corporate America to not only serve their shareholders, but serve the communities in which they exist.
+
+One really interesting, innovative idea came out of IBM this year. IBM employees will donate millions of dollars of service to charities in the U.S., as well as technology projects in developing nations. They tell me that this work would cost $250 million if IBM's devoted employees were charging, and not providing for free. I want to thank the CEO of IBM, Sam Palmisano, who is with us today. Sam, thank you very much for coming. (Applause.) And I encourage corporate America to figure out ways that they can serve to make America a better place.
+
+Another key component of USA Freedom Corps is our effort to keep track of Americans' service to others. I mean, it's one thing to talk about it, it's another thing to measure, to kind of see how we're doing. In 2002, this administration became the first to conduct a regular survey of volunteerism through the U.S. Census Bureau. Because we've begun to measure, we know that nearly 61 million Americans now give their time to help their neighbors. Isn't that interesting? Sixty-one million of our fellow citizens volunteer. (Applause.)
+
+We've also launched new national programs and enhanced others to help our citizens answer the call to service. For example, we helped Americans answer the call by creating the Citizen Corps.  (Applause.) Sounds like quite a few members have shown up. (Laughter.) And we are glad you're here.
+
+For those of you who don't know what the Citizen Corps is, it's a way for people to volunteer to help respond to disasters. This was set up right after September the 11th. Americans have formed community emergency response teams -- (applause) -- there you go -- fire corps, medical reserve corps, neighborhood watch groups. Today there are nearly 1 million Citizen Corps volunteers nationwide. (Applause.)
+
+And one of those volunteers is County Judge Ed Emmett from Harris County, Texas.  (Applause.) So let me tell you about what the Citizen Corps of Harris County did. So Katrina hits, there's about 200,000 Gulf Coast residents headed into the Houston area. The Citizen Corps showed up. Volunteers came to process evacuees, to help treat the ill and injured, and to help settle storm victims in permanent housing.
+
+Here's what Ed said -- I've known him for a long time, by the way -- the Judge said, "That's just what members of the Citizen Corps do -- they take care of their neighbors." And Judge, I want to thank you, and all of the members of the Citizen Corps nationwide for taking care of your neighbors. (Applause.)
+
+We've helped Americans answer the call by creating a program called Volunteers for Prosperity. This initiative matched skilled American professionals with service opportunities -- a lot of them in the developing world.  This year we mobilized more than 43,000 doctors, teachers, engineers and other skilled volunteers. That's a pretty good start for an important program, it seems like to me. These men and women save babies from malaria on the continent of Africa. They bring modern information technology to Afghanistan. They live out one of America's strongest beliefs -- that to whom much is given, much is required.
+
+One of those people who is a member of this important team is Zach Harvey. He serves on the prosthetics staff at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. When he isn't -- (applause) -- let me finish with old Zach. (Laughter.) When he isn't busy helping our wounded warriors, he's putting his skills to use in Guatemala and the Dominican Republic as a Volunteer for Prosperity. He works with pediatric cancer patients who've had a limb amputated as part of their treatment. He and his team of volunteers fit the children with new limbs and they pass on their skills to other care-givers.
+
+He says the only payment he receives is the pride that comes with children -- seeing children walk again. And Zach, we are proud to have you here and thank you for your service. (Applause.) Zach doesn't want anybody to look at him -- (laughter) -- but you can't help it when you're that kind of kind man. Appreciate it.
+
+By the way, both the Citizen Corps and Volunteers for Prosperity have been very effective programs. And I really believe Congress needs to make these good programs permanent. (Applause.)
+
+We've also helped answer the call to service by strengthening AmeriCorps. (Applause.) This is a program that matches dedicated volunteers with hundreds of private charitable institutions. AmeriCorps members sign up for one-year commitments with the idea of strengthening their communities by teaching adults how to read or improving health care or helping the homeless put a roof over their heads. This is a good program that was started by my predecessor, President Clinton.
+
+After 9/11, we tried to make this program more effective -- in other words, to help the dollars allocated go further. Today, more than 74,000 people serve their fellow citizens through AmeriCorps. (Applause.) I have met AmeriCorps volunteers all over our country and they're very inspiring Americans.
+
+One such volunteer is Emily Greene. After college, she enlisted in the program to serve with the Schools of Hope Literacy Project in Madison, Wisconsin. Through the Schools of Hope, Emily has recruited hundreds of volunteers to teach children how to read. What kind of -- what a wonderful gift. When somebody says, "How can I help serve America," how about teaching a child to read as a lasting contribution to the future of our country? (Applause.)
+
+Madison's public elementary schools are improving, the achievement gap is narrowing. And Emily, it must make you feel great to leave a lasting contribution, and we are glad you're here on behalf of AmeriCorps. Thanks for coming. (Applause.)
+
+We've also helped others serve by expanding the Peace Corps. (Applause.) So, see, you don't know what I know -- that every time I go to an embassy overseas and I mention anything about the Peace Corps, and there happens to be a Peace Corps contingent -- they give that same kind of yell. (Laughter.) Peace Corps volunteers are incredibly motivated people and it's a fabulous program.
+
+The number of Peace Corps volunteers has increased. We've reopened 13 -- reopened programs in 13 countries. This is a vital program. There are about 8,000 Peace Corps members that are fighting AIDS in Africa, training poor workers to start their own businesses in Latin America, they're teaching English to children in Asia. What they're doing is they're showing the rest of the world the compassionate heart of the American citizen. I mean, we are a compassionate nation and the Peace Corps does a fabulous job of advancing that compassion.
+
+Praya Baruch is with us today.  After college Praya spent two years in Ghana working with people who are HIV-positive, training religious leaders to provide community-based care, and educating young people about HIV preparation. She is now on the staff of the Peace Corps. She represents the 8,000 people who are on the front lines of helping people deal with some of the most difficult problems in the world. Praya, we are honored you're here and I want to thank the Peace Corps. (Applause.)
+
+There are other ways to help Americans answer the call to service. We have got what we call the Faith Based and Community Initiative -- (applause) -- through which we've empowered Americans to volunteer through their churches and congregations.
+
+You know, I believe that if a program is successful, government ought to support it. And I believe if it takes faith to help solve some of the most intractable problems, government ought not to fear the influence of faith in our society, we ought to welcome the influence of faith in our society. (Applause.)
+
+Laura -- who is not here, but sends her best wishes -- has rallied thousands of volunteers to help at-risk children through Helping America's Youth Initiative. We've encouraged volunteerism by holding up examples of our volunteers. You know, to date, 1.1 million Americans have received the President's Volunteer Service Award. That may not seem like a big deal to some people, but when you get one and you show it to people you're working with, they say, how do I get one of those? (Laughter.) What do I need to do? Well, what you need to do is serve your community by volunteering and help make somebody's life better. (Applause.)
+
+Volunteerism is strong in the country.  But the truth of the matter is, the farther we've gotten away from 9/11, that memory has begun to fade. And some are saying, well, maybe I don't need to volunteer now. Maybe the crisis has passed. The aftermath of 9/11 isn't nearly as intense as it was. And my call to people is, there's always a need.  You should be volunteering not because of 9/11, but you should be volunteering because our country needs you on a regular basis.
+
+We can use your help. There are citizens who say, I need love. Government can pass law, but it cannot put love into somebody's heart. Oftentimes that helps when somebody puts their arm around you and say, how can I help you, brother, or sister? What can I do to make your life better?
+
+And so today I call upon our fellow citizens to devote 4,000 hours over your lifetime in service to your country. You'll become a better person for it, and our society will be more healthy as a result of it. You know, there's an old adage that says, you can bring hope to the lives of others, but the life you enrich the most will probably be your own. (Applause.)
+
+I've witnessed the amazing phenomenon of volunteerism throughout my travels in this country. At nearly every stop, I make it a point to meet a local volunteer selected by the USA Freedom Corps at the steps of Air Force One. After they get over the initial shock of seeing me come off the plane -- (laughter) -- I love to ask them what they're doing, what are you doing to make your community a better place?
+
+One such volunteer is a young woman I met in Pittsburgh named Kristen Holloway. She started a program called Operation Troop Appreciation. It started off as kind of a small program, just an idea, a desire to make a statement. Her group collects everything from DVDs and phone calls -- cards to musical instruments and sports gear. So far, they have sent care packages to more than 40,000 men and women serving in the front lines in this war against the extremists. (Applause.)
+
+Kristen, we're glad you're here. Thank you for -- by the way, you're representing a lot of people here in this audience and around the country who have had -- I have the honor of meeting as volunteers at the foot of Air Force One.
+
+I want to thank you all for showing up when I show up.  Generally, the weather is nice. Sometimes it's not so nice. But nevertheless you're there with your smiling face. And you inspire me. You really do lift up my spirits to meet people who are so dedicated that they are willing to take time out of their lives to help somebody in need.  And I hope by getting you on the front page of your newspapers, that you inspire others to show up and serve America by volunteering.
+
+But I want to tell you what a soldier wrote to Kristen's group. A soldier wrote back after getting one of the packages and said, "My heart soars with pride to represent a country filled with such wonderful people as [you]." That was the thank you note that Kristen's group got.
+
+Well, my heart soars with pride as well to be in the presence of those who are lifting up souls and helping mend hearts. I want to thank you for what you're doing. I am incredibly optimistic about the future of our country. And the reason I am is because I've seen firsthand the love and the compassion and the decency of our fellow citizens.
+
+May God bless you. May God bless the armies of compassion.
+
+And now please welcome my buddy, Michael W. Smith.

_posts/2009-01-20-obama-inaugural-address.md

@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: "Obama Inaugural Address"
+categories: speeches
+author: Barack Obama
+date: 2009-01-20
+---
+
+My fellow citizens:
+
+I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.
+
+Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.
+
+So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.
+
+That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.
+
+These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land - a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.
+
+Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America - they will be met.
+
+On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.
+
+On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.
+
+We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.
+
+In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted - for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things - some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.
+
+For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.
+
+For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.
+
+For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.
+
+Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.
+
+This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions - that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.
+
+For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act - not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.
+
+Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions - who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.
+
+What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them - that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works - whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account - to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day - because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.
+Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control - and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on the ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart - not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.
+
+As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and we are ready to lead once more.
+
+Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with the sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.
+
+We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort - even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we’ll work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.
+
+For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.
+
+To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West - know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.
+
+To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.
+
+As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment - a moment that will define a generation - it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.
+
+For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.
+
+Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends - honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism - these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility - a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.
+
+This is the price and the promise of citizenship.
+
+This is the source of our confidence - the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.
+
+This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed - why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.
+
+So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:
+"Let it be told to the future world...that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it]."
+
+America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.
+
+Thank you. God bless you and God bless the United States of America.

_posts/2011-11-11-the-adventure-of-the-cardboard-box.md

@@ -0,0 +1,279 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box"
+author: "Arthur Conan Doyle"
+categories: literature
+---
+
+# The Adventure of the Cardboard Box
+by Arthur Conan Doyle
+
+In choosing a few typical cases which illustrate the remarkable mental qualities of my friend, Sherlock Holmes, I have endeavoured, as far as possible, to select those which presented the minimum of sensationalism, while offering a fair field for his talents. It is, however, unfortunately impossible entirely to separate the sensational from the criminal, and a chronicler is left in the dilemma that he must either sacrifice details which are essential to his statement and so give a false impression of the problem, or he must use matter which chance, and not choice, has provided him with. With this short preface I shall turn to my notes of what proved to be a strange, though a peculiarly terrible, chain of events.
+
+It was a blazing hot day in August. Baker Street was like an oven, and the glare of the sunlight upon the yellow brickwork of the house across the road was painful to the eye. It was hard to believe that these were the same walls which loomed so gloomily through the fogs of winter. Our blinds were half-drawn, and Holmes lay curled upon the sofa, reading and re-reading a letter which he had received by the morning post. For myself, my term of service in India had trained me to stand heat better than cold, and a thermometer at ninety was no hardship. But the morning paper was uninteresting. Parliament had risen. Everybody was out of town, and I yearned for the glades of the New Forest or the shingle of Southsea. A depleted bank account had caused me to postpone my holiday, and as to my companion, neither the country nor the sea presented the slightest attraction to him. He loved to lie in the very center of five millions of people, with his filaments stretching out and running through them, responsive to every little rumour or suspicion of unsolved crime. Appreciation of nature found no place among his many gifts, and his only change was when he turned his mind from the evil-doer of the town to track down his brother of the country.
+
+Finding that Holmes was too absorbed for conversation I had tossed side the barren paper, and leaning back in my chair I fell into a brown study. Suddenly my companion's voice broke in upon my thoughts:
+
+“You are right, Watson,” said he. “It does seem a most preposterous way of settling a dispute.”
+
+“Most preposterous!” I exclaimed, and then suddenly realizing how he had echoed the inmost thought of my soul, I sat up in my chair and stared at him in blank amazement.
+
+“What is this, Holmes?” I cried. “This is beyond anything which I could have imagined.”
+
+He laughed heartily at my perplexity.
+
+“You remember,” said he, “that some little time ago when I read you the passage in one of Poe's sketches in which a close reasoner follows the unspoken thoughts of his companion, you were inclined to treat the matter as a mere tour-de-force of the author. On my remarking that I was constantly in the habit of doing the same thing you expressed incredulity.”
+
+“Oh, no!”
+
+“Perhaps not with your tongue, my dear Watson, but certainly with your eyebrows. So when I saw you throw down your paper and enter upon a train of thought, I was very happy to have the opportunity of reading it off, and eventually of breaking into it, as a proof that I had been in rapport with you.”
+
+But I was still far from satisfied. “In the example which you read to me,” said I, “the reasoner drew his conclusions from the actions of the man whom he observed. If I remember right, he stumbled over a heap of stones, looked up at the stars, and so on. But I have been seated quietly in my chair, and what clues can I have given you?”
+
+“You do yourself an injustice. The features are given to man as the means by which he shall express his emotions, and yours are faithful servants.”
+
+“Do you mean to say that you read my train of thoughts from my features?”
+
+“Your features and especially your eyes. Perhaps you cannot yourself recall how your reverie commenced?”
+
+“No, I cannot.”
+
+“Then I will tell you. After throwing down your paper, which was the action which drew my attention to you, you sat for half a minute with a vacant expression. Then your eyes fixed themselves upon your newly framed picture of General Gordon, and I saw by the alteration in your face that a train of thought had been started. But it did not lead very far. Your eyes flashed across to the unframed portrait of Henry Ward Beecher which stands upon the top of your books. Then you glanced up at the wall, and of course your meaning was obvious. You were thinking that if the portrait were framed it would just cover that bare space and correspond with Gordon's picture there.”
+
+“You have followed me wonderfully!” I exclaimed.
+
+“So far I could hardly have gone astray. But now your thoughts went back to Beecher, and you looked hard across as if you were studying the character in his features. Then your eyes ceased to pucker, but you continued to look across, and your face was thoughtful. You were recalling the incidents of Beecher's career. I was well aware that you could not do this without thinking of the mission which he undertook on behalf of the North at the time of the Civil War, for I remember your expressing your passionate indignation at the way in which he was received by the more turbulent of our people. You felt so strongly about it that I knew you could not think of Beecher without thinking of that also. When a moment later I saw your eyes wander away from the picture, I suspected that your mind had now turned to the Civil War, and when I observed that your lips set, your eyes sparkled, and your hands clenched I was positive that you were indeed thinking of the gallantry which was shown by both sides in that desperate struggle. But then, again, your face grew sadder, you shook your head. You were dwelling upon the sadness and horror and useless waste of life. Your hand stole towards your own old wound and a smile quivered on your lips, which showed me that the ridiculous side of this method of settling international questions had forced itself upon your mind. At this point I agreed with you that it was preposterous and was glad to find that all my deductions had been correct.”
+
+“Absolutely!” said I. “And now that you have explained it, I confess that I am as amazed as before.”
+
+“It was very superficial, my dear Watson, I assure you. I should not have intruded it upon your attention had you not shown some incredulity the other day. But I have in my hands here a little problem which may prove to be more difficult of solution than my small essay I thought reading. Have you observed in the paper a short paragraph referring to the remarkable contents of a packet sent through the post to Miss Cushing, of Cross Street, Croydon?”
+
+“No, I saw nothing.”
+
+“Ah! then you must have overlooked it. Just toss it over to me. Here it is, under the financial column. Perhaps you would be good enough to read it aloud.”
+
+I picked up the paper which he had thrown back to me and read the paragraph indicated. It was headed, “A Gruesome Packet.”
+
+“Miss Susan Cushing, living at Cross Street, Croydon, has been made the victim of what must be regarded as a peculiarly revolting practical joke unless some more sinister meaning should prove to be attached to the incident. At two o'clock yesterday afternoon a small packet, wrapped in brown paper, was handed in by the postman. A cardboard box was inside, which was filled with coarse salt. On emptying this, Miss Cushing was horrified to find two human ears, apparently quite freshly severed. The box had been sent by parcel post from Belfast upon the morning before. There is no indication as to the sender, and the matter is the more mysterious as Miss Cushing, who is a maiden lady of fifty, has led a most retired life, and has so few acquaintances or correspondents that it is a rare event for her to receive anything through the post. Some years ago, however, when she resided at Penge, she let apartments in her house to three young medical students, whom she was obliged to get rid of on account of their noisy and irregular habits. The police are of opinion that this outrage may have been perpetrated upon Miss Cushing by these youths, who owed her a grudge and who hoped to frighten her by sending her these relics of the dissecting-rooms. Some probability is lent to the theory by the fact that one of these students came from the north of Ireland, and, to the best of Miss Cushing's belief, from Belfast. In the meantime, the matter is being actively investigated, Mr. Lestrade, one of the very smartest of our detective officers, being in charge of the case.”
+“So much for the Daily Chronicle,” said Holmes as I finished reading. “Now for our friend Lestrade. I had a note from him this morning, in which he says:
+
+“I think that this case is very much in your line. We have every hope of clearing the matter up, but we find a little difficulty in getting anything to work upon. We have, of course, wired to the Belfast post-office, but a large number of parcels were handed in upon that day, and they have no means of identifying this particular one, or of remembering the sender. The box is a half-pound box of honeydew tobacco and does not help us in any way. The medical student theory still appears to me to be the most feasible, but if you should have a few hours to spare I should be very happy to see you out here. I shall be either at the house or in the police-station all day.
+“What say you, Watson? Can you rise superior to the heat and run down to Croydon with me on the off chance of a case for your annals?”
+
+“I was longing for something to do.”
+
+“You shall have it then. Ring for our boots and tell them to order a cab. I'll be back in a moment when I have changed my dressing-gown and filled my cigar-case.”
+
+A shower of rain fell while we were in the train, and the heat was far less oppressive in Croydon than in town. Holmes had sent on a wire, so that Lestrade, as wiry, as dapper, and as ferret-like as ever, was waiting for us at the station. A walk of five minutes took us to Cross Street, where Miss Cushing resided.
+
+It was a very long street of two-story brick houses, neat and prim, with whitened stone steps and little groups of aproned women gossiping at the doors. Halfway down, Lestrade stopped and tapped at a door, which was opened by a small servant girl. Miss Cushing was sitting in the front room, into which we were ushered. She was a placid-faced woman, with large, gentle eyes, and grizzled hair curving down over her temples on each side. A worked antimacassar lay upon her lap and a basket of coloured silks stood upon a stool beside her.
+
+“They are in the outhouse, those dreadful things,” said she as Lestrade entered. “I wish that you would take them away altogether.”
+
+“So I shall, Miss Cushing. I only kept them here until my friend, Mr. Holmes, should have seen them in your presence.”
+
+“Why in my presence, sir?”
+
+“In case he wished to ask any questions.”
+
+“What is the use of asking me questions when I tell you I know nothing whatever about it?”
+
+“Quite so, madam,” said Holmes in his soothing way. “I have no doubt that you have been annoyed more than enough already over this business.”
+
+“Indeed I have, sir. I am a quiet woman and live a retired life. It is something new for me to see my name in the papers and to find the police in my house. I won't have those things I here, Mr. Lestrade. If you wish to see them you must go to the outhouse.”
+
+It was a small shed in the narrow garden which ran behind the house. Lestrade went in and brought out a yellow cardboard box, with a piece of brown paper and some string. There was a bench at the end of the path, and we all sat down while Homes examined one by one, the articles which Lestrade had handed to him.
+
+“The string is exceedingly interesting,” he remarked, holding it up to the light and sniffing at it. “What do you make of this string, Lestrade?”
+
+“It has been tarred.”
+
+“Precisely. It is a piece of tarred twine. You have also, no doubt, remarked that Miss Cushing has cut the cord with a scissors, as can be seen by the double fray on each side. This is of importance.”
+
+“I cannot see the importance,” said Lestrade.
+
+“The importance lies in the fact that the knot is left intact, and that this knot is of a peculiar character.”
+
+“It is very neatly tied. I had already made a note of that effect,” said Lestrade complacently.
+
+“So much for the string, then,” said Holmes, smiling, “now for the box wrapper. Brown paper, with a distinct smell of coffee. What, did you not observe it? I think there can be no doubt of it. Address printed in rather straggling characters: ‘Miss S. Cushing, Cross Street, Croydon.’ Done with a broad-pointed pen, probably a J, and with very inferior ink. The word ‘Croydon’ has been originally spelled with an ‘i’, which has been changed to ‘y’. The parcel was directed, then, by a man—the printing is distinctly masculine—of limited education and unacquainted with the town of Croydon. So far, so good! The box is a yellow, half-pound honeydew box, with nothing distinctive save two thumb marks at the left bottom corner. It is filled with rough salt of the quality used for preserving hides and other of the coarser commercial purposes. And embedded in it are these very singular enclosures.”
+
+He took out the two ears as he spoke, and laying a board across his knee he examined them minutely, while Lestrade and I, bending forward on each side of him, glanced alternately at these dreadful relics and at the thoughtful, eager face of our companion. Finally he returned them to the box once more and sat for a while in deep meditation.
+
+“You have observed, of course,” said he at last, “that the ears are not a pair.”
+
+“Yes, I have noticed that. But if this were the practical joke of some students from the dissecting-rooms, it would be as easy for them to send two odd ears as a pair.”
+
+“Precisely. But this is not a practical joke.”
+
+“You are sure of it?”
+
+“The presumption is strongly against it. Bodies in the dissecting-rooms are injected with preservative fluid. These ears bear no signs of this. They are fresh, too. They have been cut off with a blunt instrument, which would hardly happen if a student had done it. Again, carbolic or rectified spirits would be the preservatives which would suggest themselves to the medical mind, certainly not rough salt. I repeat that there is no practical joke here, but that we are investigating a serious crime.”
+
+A vague thrill ran through me as I listened to my companion's words and saw the stern gravity which had hardened his features. This brutal preliminary seemed to shadow forth some strange and inexplicable horror in the background. Lestrade, however, shook his head like a man who is only half convinced.
+
+“There are objections to the joke theory, no doubt,” said he, “but there are much stronger reasons against the other. We know that this woman has led a most quiet and respectable life at Penge and here for the last twenty years. She has hardly been away from her home for a day during that time. Why on earth, then, should any criminal send her the proofs of his guilt, especially as, unless she is a most consummate actress, she understands quite as little of the matter as we do?”
+
+“That is the problem which we have to solve,” Holmes answered, “and for my part I shall set about it by presuming that my reasoning is correct, and that a double murder has been committed. One of these ears is a woman's, small, finely formed, and pierced for an earring. The other is a man's, sun-burned, discoloured, and also pierced for an earring. These two people are presumably dead, or we should have heard their story before now. To-day is Friday. The packet was posted on Thursday morning. The tragedy, then, occurred on Wednesday or Tuesday, or earlier. If the two people were murdered, who but their murderer would have sent this sign of his work to Miss Cushing? We may take it that the sender of the packet is the man whom we want. But he must have some strong reason for sending Miss Cushing this packet. What reason then? It must have been to tell her that the deed was done! or to pain her, perhaps. But in that case she knows who it is. Does she know? I doubt it. If she knew, why should she call the police in? She might have buried the ears, and no one would have been the wiser. That is what she would have done if she had wished to shield the criminal. But if she does not wish to shield him she would give his name. There is a tangle here which needs straightening to.” He had been talking in a high, quick voice, staring blankly up over the garden fence, but now he sprang briskly to his feet and walked towards the house.
+
+“I have a few questions to ask Miss Cushing,” said he.
+
+“In that case I may leave you here,” said Lestrade, “for I have another small business on hand. I think that I have nothing further to learn from Miss Cushing. You will find me at the police-station.”
+
+“We shall look in on our way to the train,” answered Holmes. A moment later he and I were back in the front room, where the impassive lady was still quietly working away at her antimacassar. She put it down on her lap as we entered and looked at us with her frank, searching blue eyes.
+
+“I am convinced, sir,” she said, “that this matter is a mistake, and that the parcel was never meant for me at all. I have said this several times to the gentlemen from Scotland Yard, but he simply laughs at me. I have not an enemy in the world, as far as I know, so why should anyone play me such a trick?”
+
+“I am coming to be of the same opinion, Miss Cushing,” said Holmes, taking a seat beside her. “I think that it is more than probable—” He paused, and I was surprised, on glancing round to see that he was staring with singular intentness at the lady's profile. Surprise and satisfaction were both for an instant to be read upon his eager face, though when she glanced round to find out the cause of his silence he had become as demure as ever. I stared hard myself at her flat, grizzled hair, her trim cap, her little gilt earrings, her placid features; but I could see nothing which could account for my companion's evident excitement.
+
+“There were one or two questions—”
+
+“Oh, I am weary of questions!” cried Miss Cushing impatiently.
+
+“You have two sisters, I believe.”
+
+“How could you know that?”
+
+“I observed the very instant that I entered the room that you have a portrait group of three ladies upon the mantelpiece, one of whom is undoubtedly yourself, while the others are so exceedingly like you that there could be no doubt of the relationship.”
+
+“Yes, you are quite right. Those are my sisters, Sarah and Mary.”
+
+“And here at my elbow is another portrait, taken at Liverpool, of your younger sister, in the company of a man who appears to be a steward by his uniform. I observe that she was unmarried at the time.”
+
+“You are very quick at observing.”
+
+“That is my trade.”
+
+“Well, you are quite right. But she was married to Mr. Browner a few days afterwards. He was on the South American line when that was taken, but he was so fond of her that he couldn't abide to leave her for so long, and he got into the Liverpool and London boats.”
+
+“Ah, the Conqueror, perhaps?”
+
+“No, the May Day, when last I heard. Jim came down here to see me once. That was before he broke the pledge; but afterwards he would always take drink when he was ashore, and a little drink would send him stark, staring mad. Ah! it was a bad day that ever he took a glass in his hand again. First he dropped me, then he quarrelled with Sarah, and now that Mary has stopped writing we don't know how things are going with them.”
+
+It was evident that Miss Cushing had come upon a subject on which she felt very deeply. Like most people who lead a lonely life, she was shy at first, but ended by becoming extremely communicative. She told us many details about her brother-in-law the steward, and then wandering off on the subject of her former lodgers, the medical students, she gave us a long account of their delinquencies, with their names and those of their hospitals. Holmes listened attentively to everything, throwing in a question from time to time.
+
+“About your second sister, Sarah,” said he. “I wonder, since you are both maiden ladies, that you do not keep house together.”
+
+“Ah! you don't know Sarah's temper or you would wonder no more. I tried it when I came to Croydon, and we kept on until about two months ago, when we had to part. I don't want to say a word against my own sister, but she was always meddlesome and hard to please, was Sarah.”
+
+“You say that she quarrelled with your Liverpool relations.”
+
+“Yes, and they were the best of friends at one time. Why, she went up there to live in order to be near them. And now she has no word hard enough for Jim Browner. The last six months that she was here she would speak of nothing but his drinking and his ways. He had caught her meddling, I suspect, and given her a bit of his mind, and that was the start of it.”
+
+“Thank you, Miss Cushing,” said Holmes, rising and bowing. “Your sister Sarah lives, I think you said, at New Street, Wallington? Good-bye, and I am very sorry that you should have been troubled over a case with which, as you say, you have nothing whatever to do.”
+
+There was a cab passing as we came out, and Holmes hailed it.
+
+“How far to Wallington?” he asked.
+
+“Only about a mile, sir.”
+
+“Very good. Jump in, Watson. We must strike while the iron is hot. Simple as the case is, there have been one or two very instructive details in connection with it. Just pull up at a telegraph office as you pass, cabby.”
+
+Holmes sent off a short wire and for the rest of the drive lay back in the cab, with his hat tilted over his nose to keep the sun from his face. Our drive pulled up at a house which was not unlike the one which we had just quitted. My companion ordered him to wait, and had his hand upon the knocker, when the door opened and a grave young gentleman in black, with a very shiny hat, appeared on the step.
+
+“Is Miss Cushing at home?” asked Holmes.
+
+“Miss Sarah Cushing is extremely ill,” said he. “She has been suffering since yesterday from brain symptoms of great severity. As her medical adviser, I cannot possibly take the responsibility of allowing anyone to see her. I should recommend you to call again in ten days.” He drew on his gloves, closed the door, and marched off down the street.
+
+“Well, if we can't we can't,” said Holmes, cheerfully.
+
+“Perhaps she could not or would not have told you much.”
+
+“I did not wish her to tell me anything. I only wanted to look at her. However, I think that I have got all that I want. Drive us to some decent hotel, cabby, where we may have some lunch, and afterwards we shall drop down upon friend Lestrade at the police-station.”
+
+We had a pleasant little meal together, during which Holmes would talk about nothing but violins, narrating with great exultation how he had purchased his own Stradivarius, which was worth at least five hundred guineas, at a Jew broker's in Tottenham Court Road for fifty-five shillings. This led him to Paganini, and we sat for an hour over a bottle of claret while he told me anecdote after anecdote of that extraordinary man. The afternoon was far advanced and the hot glare had softened into a mellow glow before we found ourselves at the police-station. Lestrade was waiting for us at the door.
+
+“A telegram for you, Mr. Holmes,” said he.
+
+“Ha! It is the answer!” He tore it open, glanced his eyes over it, and crumpled it into his pocket. “That's all right,” said he.
+
+“Have you found out anything?”
+
+“I have found out everything!”
+
+“What!” Lestrade stared at him in amazement. “You are joking.”
+
+“I was never more serious in my life. A shocking crime has been committed, and I think I have now laid bare every detail of it.”
+
+“And the criminal?”
+
+Holmes scribbled a few words upon the back of one of his visiting cards and threw it over to Lestrade.
+
+“That is the name,” he said. “You cannot effect an arrest until to-morrow night at the earliest. I should prefer that you do not mention my name at all in connection with the case, as I choose to be only associated with those crimes which present some difficulty in their solution. Come on, Watson.” We strode off together to the station, leaving Lestrade still staring with a delighted face at the card which Holmes had thrown him.
+
+“The case,” said Sherlock Holmes as we chatted over or cigars that night in our rooms at Baker Street, “is one where, as in the investigations which you have chronicled under the names of ‘A Study in Scarlet’ and of ‘The Sign of Four,’ we have been compelled to reason backward from effects to causes. I have written to Lestrade asking him to supply us with the details which are now wanting, and which he will only get after he had secured his man. That he may be safely trusted to do, for although he is absolutely devoid of reason, he is as tenacious as a bulldog when he once understands what he has to do, and indeed, it is just this tenacity which has brought him to the top at Scotland Yard.”
+
+“Your case is not complete, then?” I asked.
+
+“It is fairly complete in essentials. We know who the author of the revolting business is, although one of the victims still escapes us. Of course, you have formed your own conclusions.”
+
+“I presume that this Jim Browner, the steward of a Liverpool boat, is the man whom you suspect?”
+
+“Oh! it is more than a suspicion.”
+
+“And yet I cannot see anything save very vague indications.”
+
+“On the contrary, to my mind nothing could be more clear. Let me run over the principal steps. We approached the case, you remember, with an absolutely blank mind, which is always an advantage. We had formed no theories. We were simply there to observe and to draw inferences from our observations. What did we see first? A very placid and respectable lady, who seemed quite innocent of any secret, and a portrait which showed me that she had two younger sisters. It instantly flashed across my mind that the box might have been meant for one of these. I set the idea aside as one which could be disproved or confirmed at our leisure. Then we went to the garden, as you remember, and we saw the very singular contents of the little yellow box.
+
+“The string was of the quality which is used by sail-makers aboard ship, and at once a whiff of the sea was perceptible in our investigation. When I observed that the knot was one which is popular with sailors, that the parcel had been posted at a port, and that the male ear was pierced for an earring which is so much more common among sailors than landsmen, I was quite certain that all the actors in the tragedy were to be found among our seafaring classes.
+
+“When I came to examine the address of the packet I observed that it was to Miss S. Cushing. Now, the oldest sister would, of course, be Miss Cushing, and although her initial was ‘S’ it might belong to one of the others as well. In that case we should have to commence our investigation from a fresh basis altogether. I therefore went into the house with the intention of clearing up this point. I was about to assure Miss Cushing that I was convinced that a mistake had been made when you may remember that I came suddenly to a stop. The fact was that I had just seen something which filled me with surprise and at the same time narrowed the field of our inquiry immensely.
+
+“As a medical man, you are aware, Watson, that there is no part of the body which varies so much as the human ear. Each ear is as a rule quite distinctive and differs from all other ones. In last year's Anthropological Journal you will find two short monographs from my pen upon the subject. I had, therefore, examined the ears in the box with the eyes of an expert and had carefully noted their anatomical peculiarities. Imagine my surprise, then, when on looking at Miss Cushing I perceived that her ear corresponded exactly with the female ear which I had just inspected. The matter was entirely beyond coincidence. There was the same shortening of the pinna, the same broad curve of the upper lobe, the same convolution of the inner cartilage. In all essentials it was the same ear.
+
+“In the first place, her sister's name was Sarah, and her address had until recently been the same, so that it was quite obvious how the mistake had occurred and for whom the packet was meant. Then we heard of this steward, married to the third sister, and learned that he had at one time been so intimate with Miss Sarah that she had actually gone up to Liverpool to be near the Browners, but a quarrel had afterwards divided them. This quarrel had put a stop to all communications for some months, so that if Browner had occasion to address a packet to Miss Sarah, he would undoubtedly have done so to her old address.
+
+“And now the matter had begun to straighten itself out wonderfully. We had learned of the existence of this steward, an impulsive man, of strong passions—you remember that he threw up what must have been a very superior berth in order to be nearer to his wife—subject, too, to occasional fits of hard drinking. We had reason to believe that his wife had been murdered, and that a man—presumably a seafaring man—had been murdered at the same time. Jealousy, of course, at once suggests itself as the motive for the crime. And why should these proofs of the deed be sent to Miss Sarah Cushing? Probably because during her residence in Liverpool she had some hand in bringing about the events which led to the tragedy. You will observe that this line of boats call at Belfast, Dublin, and Waterford; so that, presuming that Browner had committed the deed and had embarked at once upon his steamer, the May Day, Belfast would be the first place at which he could post his terrible packet.
+
+“A second solution was at this stage obviously possible, and although I thought it exceedingly unlikely, I was determined to elucidate it before going further. An unsuccessful lover might have killed Mr. and Mrs. Browner, and the male ear might have belonged to the husband. There were many grave objections to this theory, but it was conceivable. I therefore sent off a telegram to my friend Algar, of the Liverpool force, and asked him to find out if Mrs. Browner were at home, and if Browner had departed in the May Day. Then we went on to Wallington to visit Miss Sarah.
+
+“I was curious, in the first place, to see how far the family ear had been reproduced in her. Then, of course, she might give us very important information, but I was not sanguine that she would. She must have heard of the business the day before, since all Croydon was ringing with it, and she alone could have understood for whom the packet was meant. If she had been willing to help justice she would probably have communicated with the police already. However, it was clearly our duty to see her, so we went. We found that the news of the arrival of the packet—for her illness dated from that time—had such an effect upon her as to bring on brain fever. It was clearer than ever that she understood its full significance, but equally clear that we should have to wait some time for any assistance from her.
+
+“However, we were really independent of her help. Our answers were waiting for us at the police-station, where I had directed Algar to send them. Nothing could be more conclusive. Mrs. Browner's house had been closed for more than three days, and the neighbours were of opinion that she had gone south to see her relatives. It had been ascertained at the shipping offices that Browner had left aboard of the May Day, and I calculate that she is due in the Thames tomorrow night. When he arrives he will be met by the obtuse but resolute Lestrade, and I have no doubt that we shall have all our details filled in.”
+
+Sherlock Holmes was not disappointed in his expectations. Two days later he received a bulky envelope, which contained a short note from the detective, and a typewritten document, which covered several pages of foolscap.
+
+“Lestrade has got him all right,” said Holmes, glancing up at me. “Perhaps it would interest you to hear what he says.
+
+“My dear Mr. Holmes:
+“In accordance with the scheme which we had formed in order to test our theories” [“the ‘we’ is rather fine, Watson, is it not?”] “I went down to the Albert Dock yesterday at 6 p.m., and boarded the S.S. May Day, belonging to the Liverpool, Dublin, and London Steam Packet Company. On inquiry, I found that there was a steward on board of the name of James Browner and that he had acted during the voyage in such an extraordinary manner that the captain had been compelled to relieve him of his duties. On descending to his berth, I found him seated upon a chest with his head sunk upon his hands, rocking himself to and fro. He is a big, powerful chap, clean-shaven, and very swarthy—something like Aldrige, who helped us in the bogus laundry affair. He jumped up when he heard my business, and I had my whistle to my lips to call a couple of river police, who were round the corner, but he seemed to have no heart in him, and he held out his hands quietly enough for the darbies. We brought him along to the cells, and his box as well, for we thought there might be something incriminating; but, bar a big sharp knife such as most sailors have, we got nothing for our trouble. However, we find that we shall want no more evidence, for on being brought before the inspector at the station he asked leave to make a statement, which was, of course, taken down, just as he made it, by our shorthand man. We had three copies typewritten, one of which I enclose. The affair proves, as I always thought it would, to be an extremely simple one, but I am obliged to you for assisting me in my investigation. With kind regards,
+“Yours very truly,
+“G. Lestrade.
+“Hum! The investigation really was a very simple one,” remarked Holmes, “but I don't think it struck him in that light when he first called us in. However, let us see what Jim Browner has to say for himself. This is his statement as made before Inspector Montgomery at the Shadwell Police Station, and it has the advantage of being verbatim.”
+
+“‘Have I anything to say? Yes, I have a deal to say. I have to make a clean breast of it all. You can hang me, or you can leave me alone. I don't care a plug which you do. I tell you I've not shut an eye in sleep since I did it, and I don't believe I ever will again until I get past all waking. Sometimes it's his face, but most generally it's hers. I'm never without one or the other before me. He looks frowning and black-like, but she has a kind o' surprise upon her face. Ay, the white lamb, she might well be surprised when she read death on a face that had seldom looked anything but love upon her before.
+
+“‘But it was Sarah's fault, and may the curse of a broken man put a blight on her and set the blood rotting in her veins! It's not that I want to clear myself. I know that I went back to drink, like the beast that I was. But she would have forgiven me; she would have stuck as close to me a rope to a block if that woman had never darkened our door. For Sarah Cushing loved me—that's the root of the business—she loved me until all her love turned to poisonous hate when she knew that I thought more of my wife's footmark in the mud than I did of her whole body and soul.
+
+“‘There were three sisters altogether. The old one was just a good woman, the second was a devil, and the third was an angel. Sarah was thirty-three, and Mary was twenty-nine when I married. We were just as happy as the day was long when we set up house together, and in all Liverpool there was no better woman than my Mary. And then we asked Sarah up for a week, and the week grew into a month, and one thing led to another, until she was just one of ourselves.
+
+“‘I was blue ribbon at that time, and we were putting a little money by, and all was as bright as a new dollar. My God, whoever would have thought that it could have come to this? Whoever would have dreamed it?
+
+“‘I used to be home for the week-ends very often, and sometimes if the ship were held back for cargo I would have a whole week at a time, and in this way I saw a deal of my sister-in-law, Sarah. She was a fine tall woman, black and quick and fierce, with a proud way of carrying her head, and a glint from her eye like a spark from a flint. But when little Mary was there I had never a thought of her, and that I swear as I hope for God's mercy.
+
+“‘It had seemed to me sometimes that she liked to be alone with me, or to coax me out for a walk with her, but I had never thought anything of that. But one evening my eyes were opened. I had come up from the ship and found my wife out, but Sarah at home. “Where's Mary?” I asked. “Oh, she has gone to pay some accounts.” I was impatient and paced up and down the room. “Can't you be happy for five minutes without Mary, Jim?” says she. “It's a bad compliment to me that you can't be contented with my society for so short a time.” “That's all right, my lass,” said I, putting out my hand towards her in a kindly way, but she had it in both hers in an instant, and they burned as if they were in a fever. I looked into her eyes and I read it all there. There was no need for her to speak, nor for me either. I frowned and drew my hand away. Then she stood by my side in silence for a bit, and then put up her hand and patted me on the shoulder. “Steady old Jim!” said she, and with a kind o' mocking laugh, she ran out of the room.
+
+“‘Well, from that time Sarah hated me with her whole heart and soul, and she is a woman who can hate, too. I was a fool to let her go on biding with us—a besotted fool—but I never said a word to Mary, for I knew it would grieve her. Things went on much as before, but after a time I began to find that there was a bit of a change in Mary herself. She had always been so trusting and so innocent, but now she became queer and suspicious, wanting to know where I had been and what I had been doing, and whom my letters were from, and what I had in my pockets, and a thousand such follies. Day by day she grew queerer and more irritable, and we had ceaseless rows about nothing. I was fairly puzzled by it all. Sarah avoided me now, but she and Mary were just inseparable. I can see now how she was plotting and scheming and poisoning my wife's mind against me, but I was such a blind beetle that I could not understand it at the time. Then I broke my blue ribbon and began to drink again, but I think I should not have done it if Mary had been the same as ever. She had some reason to be disgusted with me now, and the gap between us began to be wider and wider. And then this Alec Fairbairn chipped in, and things became a thousand times blacker.
+
+“‘It was to see Sarah that he came to my house first, but soon it was to see us, for he was a man with winning ways, and he made friends wherever he went. He was a dashing, swaggering chap, smart and curled, who had seen half the world and could talk of what he had seen. He was good company, I won't deny it, and he had wonderful polite ways with him for a sailor man, so that I think there must have been a time when he knew more of the poop than the forecastle. For a month he was in and out of my house, and never once did it cross my mind that harm might come of his soft, tricky ways. And then at last something made me suspect, and from that day my peace was gone forever.
+
+“‘It was only a little thing, too. I had come into the parlour unexpected, and as I walked in at the door I saw a light of welcome on my wife's face. But as she saw who it was it faded again, and she turned away with a look of disappointment. That was enough for me. There was no one but Alec Fairbairn whose step she could have mistaken for mine. If I could have seen him then I should have killed him, for I have always been like a madman when my temper gets loose. Mary saw the devil's light in my eyes, and she ran forward with her hands on my sleeve. “Don't, Jim, don't!” says she. “Where's Sarah?” I asked. “In the kitchen,” says she. “Sarah,” says I as I went in, “this man Fairbairn is never to darken my door again.” “Why not?” says she. “Because I order it.” “Oh!” says she, “if my friends are not good enough for this house, then I am not good enough for it either.” “You can do what you like,” says I, “but if Fairbairn shows his face here again I'll send you one of his ears for a keepsake.” She was frightened by my face, I think, for she never answered a word, and the same evening she left my house.
+
+“‘Well, I don't know now whether it was pure devilry on the part of this woman, or whether she thought that she could turn me against my wife by encouraging her to misbehave. Anyway, she took a house just two streets off and let lodgings to sailors. Fairbairn used to stay there, and Mary would go round to have tea with her sister and him. How often she went I don't know, but I followed her one day, and as I broke in at the door Fairbairn got away over the back garden wall, like the cowardly skunk that he was. I swore to my wife that I would kill her if I found her in his company again, and I led her back with me, sobbing and trembling, and as white as a piece of paper. There was no trace of love between us any longer. I could see that she hated me and feared me, and when the thought of it drove me to drink, then she despised me as well.
+
+“‘Well, Sarah found that she could not make a living in Liverpool, so she went back, as I understand, to live with her sister in Croydon, and things jogged on much the same as ever at home. And then came this week and all the misery and ruin.
+
+“‘It was in this way. We had gone on the May Day for a round voyage of seven days, but a hogshead got loose and started one of our plates, so that we had to put back into port for twelve hours. I left the ship and came home, thinking what a surprise it would be for my wife, and hoping that maybe she would be glad to see me so soon. The thought was in my head as I turned into my own street, and at that moment a cab passed me, and there she was, sitting by the side of Fairbairn, the two chatting and laughing, with never a thought for me as I stood watching them from the footpath.
+
+“‘I tell you, and I give you my word for it, that from that moment I was not my own master, and it is all like a dim dream when I look back on it. I had been drinking hard of late, and the two things together fairly turned my brain. There's something throbbing in my head now, like a docker's hammer, but that morning I seemed to have all Niagara whizzing and buzzing in my ears.
+
+“‘Well, I took to my heels, and I ran after the cab. I had a heavy oak stick in my hand, and I tell you I saw red from the first; but as I ran I got cunning, too, and hung back a little to see them without being seen. They pulled up soon at the railway station. There was a good crowd round the booking-office, so I got quite close to them without being seen. They took tickets for New Brighton. So did I, but I got in three carriages behind them. When we reached it they walked along the Parade, and I was never more than a hundred yards from them. At last I saw them hire a boat and start for a row, for it was a very hot day, and they thought, no doubt, that it would be cooler on the water.
+
+“‘It was just as if they had been given into my hands. There was a bit of a haze, and you could not see more than a few hundred yards. I hired a boat for myself, and I pulled after them. I could see the blur of their craft, but they were going nearly as fast as I, and they must have been a long mile from the shore before I caught them up. The haze was like a curtain all round us, and there were we three in the middle of it. My God, shall I ever forget their faces when they saw who was in the boat that was closing in upon them? She screamed out. He swore like a madman and jabbed at me with an oar, for he must have seen death in my eyes. I got past it and got one in with my stick that crushed his head like an egg. I would have spared her, perhaps, for all my madness, but she threw her arms round him, crying out to him, and calling him “Alec.” I struck again, and she lay stretched beside him. I was like a wild beast then that had tasted blood. If Sarah had been there, by the Lord, she should have joined them. I pulled out my knife, and—well, there! I've said enough. It gave me a kind of savage joy when I thought how Sarah would feel when she had such signs as these of what her meddling had brought about. Then I tied the bodies into the boat, stove a plank, and stood by until they had sunk. I knew very well that the owner would think that they had lost their bearings in the haze, and had drifted off out to sea. I cleaned myself up, got back to land, and joined my ship without a soul having a suspicion of what had passed. That night I made up the packet for Sarah Cushing, and next day I sent it from Belfast.
+
+“‘There you have the whole truth of it. You can hang me, or do what you like with me, but you cannot punish me as I have been punished already. I cannot shut my eyes but I see those two faces staring at me—staring at me as they stared when my boat broke through the haze. I killed them quick, but they are killing me slow; and if I have another night of it I shall be either mad or dead before morning. You won't put me alone into a cell, sir? For pity's sake don't, and may you be treated in your day of agony as you treat me now.’
+
+“What is the meaning of it, Watson?” said Holmes solemnly as he laid down the paper. “What object is served by this circle of misery and violence and fear? It must tend to some end, or else our universe is ruled by chance, which is unthinkable. But what end? There is the great standing perennial problem to which human reason is as far from an answer as ever.”
+
+[Text taken from here](http://sherlock-holm.es/stories/html/card.html)

_posts/2012-06-09-the-adventure-of-the-dying-detective.md

@@ -0,0 +1,382 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: "The Adventure of the Dying Detective"
+author: "Arthur Conan Doyle"
+categories: literature
+author: Arthur Conan Doyle
+---
+
+
+Mrs. Hudson, the landlady of Sherlock Holmes, was a long-suffering woman. Not only was her first-floor flat invaded at all hours by throngs of singular and often undesirable characters but her remarkable lodger showed an eccentricity and irregularity in his life which must have sorely tried her patience. His incredible untidiness, his addiction to music at strange hours, his occasional revolver practice within doors, his weird and often malodorous scientific experiments, and the atmosphere of violence and danger which hung around him made him the very worst tenant in London. On the other hand, his payments were princely. I have no doubt that the house might have been purchased at the price which Holmes paid for his rooms during the years that I was with him.
+
+The landlady stood in the deepest awe of him and never dared to interfere with him, however outrageous his proceedings might seem. She was fond of him, too, for he had a remarkable gentleness and courtesy in his dealings with women. He disliked and distrusted the sex, but he was always a chivalrous opponent. Knowing how genuine was her regard for him, I listened earnestly to her story when she came to my rooms in the second year of my married life and told me of the sad condition to which my poor friend was reduced.
+
+“He's dying, Dr. Watson,” said she. “For three days he has been sinking, and I doubt if he will last the day. He would not let me get a doctor. This morning when I saw his bones sticking out of his face and his great bright eyes looking at me I could stand no more of it. ‘With your leave or without it, Mr. Holmes, I am going for a doctor this very hour,’ said I. ‘Let it be Watson, then,’ said he. I wouldn't waste an hour in coming to him, sir, or you may not see him alive.”
+
+I was horrified for I had heard nothing of his illness. I need not say that I rushed for my coat and my hat. As we drove back I asked for the details.
+
+“There is little I can tell you, sir. He has been working at a case down at Rotherhithe, in an alley near the river, and he has brought this illness back with him. He took to his bed on Wednesday afternoon and has never moved since. For these three days neither food nor drink has passed his lips.”
+
+“Good God! Why did you not call in a doctor?”
+
+“He wouldn't have it, sir. You know how masterful he is. I didn't dare to disobey him. But he's not long for this world, as you'll see for yourself the moment that you set eyes on him.”
+
+He was indeed a deplorable spectacle. In the dim light of a foggy November day the sick room was a gloomy spot, but it was that gaunt, wasted face staring at me from the bed which sent a chill to my heart. His eyes had the brightness of fever, there was a hectic flush upon either cheek, and dark crusts clung to his lips; the thin hands upon the coverlet twitched incessantly, his voice was croaking and spasmodic. He lay listlessly as I entered the room, but the sight of me brought a gleam of recognition to his eyes.
+
+“Well, Watson, we seem to have fallen upon evil days,” said he in a feeble voice, but with something of his old carelessness of manner.
+
+“My dear fellow!” I cried, approaching him.
+
+“Stand back! Stand right back!” said he with the sharp imperiousness which I had associated only with moments of crisis. “If you approach me, Watson, I shall order you out of the house.”
+
+“But why?”
+
+“Because it is my desire. Is that not enough?”
+
+Yes, Mrs. Hudson was right. He was more masterful than ever. It was pitiful, however, to see his exhaustion.
+
+“I only wished to help,” I explained.
+
+“Exactly! You will help best by doing what you are told.”
+
+“Certainly, Holmes.”
+
+He relaxed the austerity of his manner.
+
+“You are not angry?” he asked, gasping for breath.
+
+Poor devil, how could I be angry when I saw him lying in such a plight before me?
+
+“It's for your own sake, Watson,” he croaked.
+
+“For my sake?”
+
+“I know what is the matter with me. It is a coolie disease from Sumatra—a thing that the Dutch know more about than we, though they have made little of it up to date. One thing only is certain. It is infallibly deadly, and it is horribly contagious.”
+
+He spoke now with a feverish energy, the long hands twitching and jerking as he motioned me away.
+
+“Contagious by touch, Watson—that's it, by touch. Keep your distance and all is well.”
+
+“Good heavens, Holmes! Do you suppose that such a consideration weighs with me of an instant? It would not affect me in the case of a stranger. Do you imagine it would prevent me from doing my duty to so old a friend?”
+
+Again I advanced, but he repulsed me with a look of furious anger.
+
+“If you will stand there I will talk. If you do not you must leave the room.”
+
+I have so deep a respect for the extraordinary qualities of Holmes that I have always deferred to his wishes, even when I least understood them. But now all my professional instincts were aroused. Let him be my master elsewhere, I at least was his in a sick room.
+
+“Holmes,” said I, “you are not yourself. A sick man is but a child, and so I will treat you. Whether you like it or not, I will examine your symptoms and treat you for them.”
+
+He looked at me with venomous eyes.
+
+“If I am to have a doctor whether I will or not, let me at least have someone in whom I have confidence,” said he.
+
+“Then you have none in me?”
+
+“In your friendship, certainly. But facts are facts, Watson, and, after all, you are only a general practitioner with very limited experience and mediocre qualifications. It is painful to have to say these things, but you leave me no choice.”
+
+I was bitterly hurt.
+
+“Such a remark is unworthy of you, Holmes. It shows me very clearly the state of your own nerves. But if you have no confidence in me I would not intrude my services. Let me bring Sir Jasper Meek or Penrose Fisher, or any of the best men in London. But someone you must have, and that is final. If you think that I am going to stand here and see you die without either helping you myself or bringing anyone else to help you, then you have mistaken your man.”
+
+“You mean well, Watson,” said the sick man with something between a sob and a groan. “Shall I demonstrate your own ignorance? What do you know, pray, of Tapanuli fever? What do you know of the black Formosa corruption?”
+
+“I have never heard of either.”
+
+“There are many problems of disease, many strange pathological possibilities, in the East, Watson.” He paused after each sentence to collect his failing strength. “I have learned so much during some recent researches which have a medico-criminal aspect. It was in the course of them that I contracted this complaint. You can do nothing.”
+
+“Possibly not. But I happen to know that Dr. Ainstree, the greatest living authority upon tropical disease, is now in London. All remonstrance is useless, Holmes, I am going this instant to fetch him.” I turned resolutely to the door.
+
+Never have I had such a shock! In an instant, with a tiger-spring, the dying man had intercepted me. I heard the sharp snap of a twisted key. The next moment he had staggered back to his bed, exhausted and panting after his one tremendous outflame of energy.
+
+“You won't take the key from be by force, Watson, I've got you, my friend. Here you are, and here you will stay until I will otherwise. But I'll humour you.” (All this in little gasps, with terrible struggles for breath between.) “You've only my own good at heart. Of course I know that very well. You shall have your way, but give me time to get my strength. Not now, Watson, not now. It's four o'clock. At six you can go.”
+
+“This is insanity, Holmes.”
+
+“Only two hours, Watson. I promise you will go at six. Are you content to wait?”
+
+“I seem to have no choice.”
+
+“None in the world, Watson. Thank you, I need no help in arranging the clothes. You will please keep your distance. Now, Watson, there is one other condition that I would make. You will seek help, not from the man you mention, but from the one that I choose.”
+
+“By all means.”
+
+“The first three sensible words that you have uttered since you entered this room, Watson. You will find some books over there. I am somewhat exhausted; I wonder how a battery feels when it pours electricity into a non-conductor? At six, Watson, we resume our conversation.”
+
+But it was destined to be resumed long before that hour, and in circumstances which gave me a shock hardly second to that caused by his spring to the door. I had stood for some minutes looking at the silent figure in the bed. His face was almost covered by the clothes and he appeared to be asleep. Then, unable to settle down to reading, I walked slowly round the room, examining the pictures of celebrated criminals with which every wall was adorned. Finally, in my aimless perambulation, I came to the mantelpiece. A litter of pipes, tobacco-pouches, syringes, penknives, revolver-cartridges, and other debris was scattered over it. In the midst of these was a small black and white ivory box with a sliding lid. It was a neat little thing, and I had stretched out my hand to examine it more closely when—
+
+It was a dreadful cry that he gave—a yell which might have been heard down the street. My skin went cold and my hair bristled at that horrible scream. As I turned I caught a glimpse of a convulsed face and frantic eyes. I stood paralyzed, with the little box in my hand.
+
+“Put it down! Down, this instant, Watson—this instant, I say!” His head sank back upon the pillow and he gave a deep sigh of relief as I replaced the box upon the mantelpiece. “I hate to have my things touched, Watson. You know that I hate it. You fidget me beyond endurance. You, a doctor—you are enough to drive a patient into an asylum. Sit down, man, and let me have my rest!”
+
+The incident left a most unpleasant impression upon my mind. The violent and causeless excitement, followed by this brutality of speech, so far removed from his usual suavity, showed me how deep was the disorganization of his mind. Of all ruins, that of a noble mind is the most deplorable. I sat in silent dejection until the stipulated time had passed. He seemed to have been watching the clock as well as I, for it was hardly six before he began to talk with the same feverish animation as before.
+
+“Now, Watson,” said he. “Have you any change in your pocket?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Any silver?”
+
+“A good deal.”
+
+“How many half-crowns?”
+
+“I have five.”
+
+“Ah, too few! Too few! How very unfortunate, Watson! However, such as they are you can put them in your watchpocket. And all the rest of your money in your left trouser pocket. Thank you. It will balance you so much better like that.”
+
+This was raving insanity. He shuddered, and again made a sound between a cough and a sob.
+
+“You will now light the gas, Watson, but you will be very careful that not for one instant shall it be more than half on. I implore you to be careful, Watson. Thank you, that is excellent. No, you need not draw the blind. Now you will have the kindness to place some letters and papers upon this table within my reach. Thank you. Now some of that litter from the mantelpiece. Excellent, Watson! There is a sugar-tongs there. Kindly raise that small ivory box with its assistance. Place it here among the papers. Good! You can now go and fetch Mr. Culverton Smith, of 13 Lower Burke Street.”
+
+To tell the truth, my desire to fetch a doctor had somewhat weakened, for poor Holmes was so obviously delirious that it seemed dangerous to leave him. However, he was as eager now to consult the person named as he had been obstinate in refusing.
+
+“I never heard the name,” said I.
+
+“Possibly not, my good Watson. It may surprise you to know that the man upon earth who is best versed in this disease is not a medical man, but a planter. Mr. Culverton Smith is a well-known resident of Sumatra, now visiting London. An outbreak of the disease upon his plantation, which was distant from medical aid, caused him to study it himself, with some rather far-reaching consequences. He is a very methodical person, and I did not desire you to start before six, because I was well aware that you would not find him in his study. If you could persuade him to come here and give us the benefit of his unique experience of this disease, the investigation of which has been his dearest hobby, I cannot doubt that he could help me.”
+
+I gave Holmes's remarks as a consecutive whole and will not attempt to indicate how they were interrupted by gaspings for breath and those clutchings of his hands which indicated the pain from which he was suffering. His appearance had changed for the worse during the few hours that I had been with him. Those hectic spots were more pronounced, the eyes shone more brightly out of darker hollows, and a cold sweat glimmered upon his brow. He still retained, however, the jaunty gallantry of his speech. To the last gasp he would always be the master.
+
+“You will tell him exactly how you have left me,” said he. “You will convey the very impression which is in your own mind—a dying man—a dying and delirious man. Indeed, I cannot think why the whole bed of the ocean is not one solid mass of oysters, so prolific the creatures seem. Ah, I am wondering! Strange how the brain controls the brain! What was I saying, Watson?”
+
+“My directions for Mr. Culverton Smith.”
+
+“Ah, yes, I remember. My life depends upon it. Plead with him, Watson. There is no good feeling between us. His nephew, Watson—I had suspicions of foul play and I allowed him to see it. The boy died horribly. He has a grudge against me. You will soften him, Watson. Beg him, pray him, get him here by any means. He can save me—only he!”
+
+“I will bring him in a cab, if I have to carry him down to it.”
+
+“You will do nothing of the sort. You will persuade him to come. And then you will return in front of him. Make any excuse so as not to come with him. Don't forget, Watson. You won't fail me. You never did fail me. No doubt there are natural enemies which limit the increase of the creatures. You and I, Watson, we have done our part. Shall the world, then, be overrun by oysters? No, no; horrible! You'll convey all that is in your mind.”
+
+I left him full of the image of this magnificent intellect babbling like a foolish child. He had handed me the key, and with a happy thought I took it with me lest he should lock himself in. Mrs. Hudson was waiting, trembling and weeping, in the passage. Behind me as I passed from the flat I heard Holmes's high, thin voice in some delirious chant. Below, as I stood whistling for a cab, a man came on me through the fog.
+
+“How is Mr. Holmes, sir?” he asked.
+
+It was an old acquaintance, Inspector Morton, of Scotland Yard, dressed in unofficial tweeds.
+
+“He is very ill,” I answered.
+
+He looked at me in a most singular fashion. Had it not been too fiendish, I could have imagined that the gleam of the fanlight showed exultation in his face.
+
+“I heard some rumour of it,” said he.
+
+The cab had driven up, and I left him.
+
+Lower Burke Street proved to be a line of fine houses lying in the vague borderland between Notting Hill and Kensington. The particular one at which my cabman pulled up had an air of smug and demure respectability in its old-fashioned iron railings, its massive folding-door, and its shining brasswork. All was in keeping with a solemn butler who appeared framed in the pink radiance of a tinted electrical light behind him.
+
+“Yes, Mr. Culverton Smith is in. Dr. Watson! Very good, sir, I will take up your card.”
+
+My humble name and title did not appear to impress Mr. Culverton Smith. Through the half-open door I heard a high, petulant, penetrating voice.
+
+“Who is this person? What does he want? Dear me, Staples, how often have I said that I am not to be disturbed in my hours of study?”
+
+There came a gentle flow of soothing explanation from the butler.
+
+“Well, I won't see him, Staples. I can't have my work interrupted like this. I am not at home. Say so. Tell him to come in the morning if he really must see me.”
+
+Again the gentle murmur.
+
+“Well, well, give him that message. He can come in the morning, or he can stay away. My work must not be hindered.”
+
+I thought of Holmes tossing upon his bed of sickness and counting the minutes, perhaps, until I could bring help to him. It was not a time to stand upon ceremony. His life depended upon my promptness. Before the apologetic butler had delivered his message I had pushed past him and was in the room.
+
+With a shrill cry of anger a man rose from a reclining chair beside the fire. I saw a great yellow face, coarse-grained and greasy, with heavy, double-chin, and two sullen, menacing gray eyes which glared at me from under tufted and sandy brows. A high bald head had a small velvet smoking-cap poised coquettishly upon one side of its pink curve. The skull was of enormous capacity, and yet as I looked down I saw to my amazement that the figure of the man was small and frail, twisted in the shoulders and back like one who has suffered from rickets in his childhood.
+
+“What's this?” he cried in a high, screaming voice. “What is the meaning of this intrusion? Didn't I send you word that I would see you to-morrow morning?”
+
+“I am sorry,” said I, “but the matter cannot be delayed. Mr. Sherlock Holmes—”
+
+The mention of my friend's name had an extraordinary effect upon the little man. The look of anger passed in an instant from his face. His features became tense and alert.
+
+“Have you come from Holmes?” he asked.
+
+“I have just left him.”
+
+“What about Holmes? How is he?”
+
+“He is desperately ill. That is why I have come.”
+
+The man motioned me to a chair, and turned to resume his own. As he did so I caught a glimpse of his face in the mirror over the mantelpiece. I could have sworn that it was set in a malicious and abominable smile. Yet I persuaded myself that it must have been some nervous contraction which I had surprised, for he turned to me an instant later with genuine concern upon his features.
+
+“I am sorry to hear this,” said he. “I only know Mr. Holmes through some business dealings which we have had, but I have every respect for his talents and his character. He is an amateur of crime, as I am of disease. For him the villain, for me the microbe. There are my prisons,” he continued, pointing to a row of bottles and jars which stood upon a side table. "Among those gelatine cultivations some of the very worst offenders in the world are now doing time."
+
+“It was on account of your special knowledge that Mr. Holmes desired to see you. He has a high opinion of you and thought that you were the one man in London who could help him.”
+
+The little man started, and the jaunty smoking-cap slid to the floor.
+
+“Why?” he asked. “Why should Mr. Homes think that I could help him in his trouble?”
+
+“Because of your knowledge of Eastern diseases.”
+
+“But why should he think that this disease which he has contracted is Eastern?”
+
+“Because, in some professional inquiry, he has been working among Chinese sailors down in the docks.”
+
+Mr. Culverton Smith smiled pleasantly and picked up his smoking-cap.
+
+“Oh, that's it—is it?” said he. “I trust the matter is not so grave as you suppose. How long has he been ill?”
+
+“About three days.”
+
+“Is he delirious?”
+
+“Occasionally.”
+
+“Tut, tut! This sounds serious. It would be inhuman not to answer his call. I very much resent any interruption to my work, Dr. Watson, but this case is certainly exceptional. I will come with you at once.”
+
+I remembered Holmes's injunction.
+
+“I have another appointment,” said I.
+
+“Very good. I will go alone. I have a note of Mr. Holmes's address. You can rely upon my being there within half an hour at most.”
+
+It was with a sinking heart that I reentered Holmes's bedroom. For all that I knew the worst might have happened in my absence. To my enormous relief, he had improved greatly in the interval. His appearance was as ghastly as ever, but all trace of delirium had left him and he spoke in a feeble voice, it is true, but with even more than his usual crispness and lucidity.
+
+“Well, did you see him, Watson?”
+
+“Yes; he is coming.”
+
+“Admirable, Watson! Admirable! You are the best of messengers.”
+
+“He wished to return with me.”
+
+“That would never do, Watson. That would be obviously impossible. Did he ask what ailed me?”
+
+“I told him about the Chinese in the East End.”
+
+“Exactly! Well, Watson, you have done all that a good friend could. You can now disappear from the scene.”
+
+“I must wait and hear his opinion, Holmes.”
+
+“Of course you must. But I have reasons to suppose that this opinion would be very much more frank and valuable if he imagines that we are alone. There is just room behind the head of my bed, Watson.”
+
+“My dear Holmes!”
+
+“I fear there is no alternative, Watson. The room does not lend itself to concealment, which is as well, as it is the less likely to arouse suspicion. But just there, Watson, I fancy that it could be done.” Suddenly he sat up with a rigid intentness upon his haggard face. “There are the wheels, Watson. Quick, man, if you love me! And don't budge, whatever happens—whatever happens, do you hear? Don't speak! Don't move! Just listen with all your ears.” Then in an instant his sudden access of strength departed, and his masterful, purposeful talk droned away into the low, vague murmurings of a semi-delirious man.
+
+From the hiding-place into which I had been so swiftly hustled I heard the footfalls upon the stair, with the opening and the closing of the bedroom door. Then, to my surprise, there came a long silence, broken only by the heavy breathings and gaspings of the sick man. I could imagine that our visitor was standing by the bedside and looking down at the sufferer. At last that strange hush was broken.
+
+“Holmes!” he cried. “Holmes!” in the insistent tone of one who awakens a sleeper. "Can't you hear me, Holmes?" There was a rustling, as if he had shaken the sick man roughly by the shoulder.
+
+“Is that you, Mr. Smith?” Holmes whispered. “I hardly dared hope that you would come.”
+
+The other laughed.
+
+“I should imagine not,” he said. “And yet, you see, I am here. Coals of fire, Holmes—coals of fire!”
+
+“It is very good of you—very noble of you. I appreciate your special knowledge.”
+
+Our visitor sniggered.
+
+“You do. You are, fortunately, the only man in London who does. Do you know what is the matter with you?”
+
+“The same,” said Holmes.
+
+“Ah! You recognize the symptoms?”
+
+“Only too well.”
+
+“Well, I shouldn't be surprised, Holmes. I shouldn't be surprised if it were the same. A bad lookout for you if it is. Poor Victor was a dead man on the fourth day—a strong, hearty young fellow. It was certainly, as you said, very surprising that he should have contracted and out-of-the-way Asiatic disease in the heart of London—a disease, too, of which I had made such a very special study. Singular coincidence, Holmes. Very smart of you to notice it, but rather uncharitable to suggest that it was cause and effect.”
+
+“I knew that you did it.”
+
+“Oh, you did, did you? Well, you couldn't prove it, anyhow. But what do you think of yourself spreading reports about me like that, and then crawling to me for help the moment you are in trouble? What sort of a game is that—eh?”
+
+I heard the rasping, laboured breathing of the sick man. “Give me the water!” he gasped.
+
+“You're precious near your end, my friend, but I don't want you to go till I have had a word with you. That's why I give you water. There, don't slop it about! That's right. Can you understand what I say?”
+
+Holmes groaned.
+
+“Do what you can for me. Let bygones be bygones,” he whispered. “I'll put the words out of my head—I swear I will. Only cure me, and I'll forget it.”
+
+“Forget what?”
+
+“Well, about Victor Savage's death. You as good as admitted just now that you had done it. I'll forget it.”
+
+“You can forget it or remember it, just as you like. I don't see you in the witnessbox. Quite another shaped box, my good Holmes, I assure you. It matters nothing to me that you should know how my nephew died. It's not him we are talking about. It's you.”
+
+“Yes, yes.”
+
+“The fellow who came for me—I've forgotten his name—said that you contracted it down in the East End among the sailors.”
+
+“I could only account for it so.”
+
+“You are proud of your brains, Holmes, are you not? Think yourself smart, don't you? You came across someone who was smarter this time. Now cast your mind back, Holmes. Can you think of no other way you could have got this thing?”
+
+“I can't think. My mind is gone. For heaven's sake help me!”
+
+“Yes, I will help you. I'll help you to understand just where you are and how you got there. I'd like you to know before you die.”
+
+“Give me something to ease my pain.”
+
+“Painful, is it? Yes, the coolies used to do some squealing towards the end. Takes you as cramp, I fancy.”
+
+“Yes, yes; it is cramp.”
+
+“Well, you can hear what I say, anyhow. Listen now! Can you remember any unusual incident in your life just about the time your symptoms began?”
+
+“No, no; nothing.”
+
+“Think again.”
+
+“I'm too ill to think.”
+
+“Well, then, I'll help you. Did anything come by post?”
+
+“By post?”
+
+“A box by chance?”
+
+“I'm fainting—I'm gone!”
+
+“Listen, Holmes!” There was a sound as if he was shaking the dying man, and it was all that I could do to hold myself quiet in my hiding-place. “You must hear me. You shall hear me. Do you remember a box—an ivory box? It came on Wednesday. You opened it—do you remember?”
+
+“Yes, yes, I opened it. There was a sharp spring inside it. Some joke—”
+
+“It was no joke, as you will find to your cost. You fool, you would have it and you have got it. Who asked you to cross my path? If you had left me alone I would not have hurt you.”
+
+“I remember,” Holmes gasped. “The spring! It drew blood. This box—this on the table.”
+
+“The very one, by George! And it may as well leave the room in my pocket. There goes your last shred of evidence. But you have the truth now, Holmes, and you can die with the knowledge that I killed you. You knew too much of the fate of Victor Savage, so I have sent you to share it. You are very near your end, Holmes. I will sit here and I will watch you die.”
+
+Holmes's voice had sunk to an almost inaudible whisper.
+
+“What is that?” said Smith. “Turn up the gas? Ah, the shadows begin to fall, do they? Yes, I will turn it up, that I may see you the better.” He crossed the room and the light suddenly brightened. "Is there any other little service that I can do you, my friend?"
+
+“A match and a cigarette.”
+
+I nearly called out in my joy and my amazement. He was speaking in his natural voice—a little weak, perhaps, but the very voice I knew. There was a long pause, and I felt that Culverton Smith was standing in silent amazement looking down at his companion.
+
+“What's the meaning of this?” I heard him say at last in a dry, rasping tone.
+
+“The best way of successfully acting a part is to be it,” said Holmes. “I give you my word that for three days I have tasted neither food nor drink until you were good enough to pour me out that glass of water. But it is the tobacco which I find most irksome. Ah, here are some cigarettes.” I heard the striking of a match. "That is very much better. Halloa! halloa! Do I hear the step of a friend?"
+
+There were footfalls outside, the door opened, and Inspector Morton appeared.
+
+“All is in order and this is your man,” said Holmes.
+
+The officer gave the usual cautions.
+
+“I arrest you on the charge of the murder of one Victor Savage,” he concluded.
+
+“And you might add of the attempted murder of one Sherlock Holmes,” remarked my friend with a chuckle. “To save an invalid trouble, Inspector, Mr. Culverton Smith was good enough to give our signal by turning up the gas. By the way, the prisoner has a small box in the right-hand pocket of his coat which it would be as well to remove. Thank you. I would handle it gingerly if I were you. Put it down here. It may play its part in the trial.”
+
+There was a sudden rush and a scuffle, followed by the clash of iron and a cry of pain.
+
+“You'll only get yourself hurt,” said the inspector. “Stand still, will you?” There was the click of the closing handcuffs.
+
+“A nice trap!” cried the high, snarling voice. “It will bring you into the dock, Holmes, not me. He asked me to come here to cure him. I was sorry for him and I came. Now he will pretend, no doubt, that I have said anything which he may invent which will corroborate his insane suspicions. You can lie as you like, Holmes. My word is always as good as yours.”
+
+“Good heavens!” cried Holmes. “I had totally forgotten him. My dear Watson, I owe you a thousand apologies. To think that I should have overlooked you! I need not introduce you to Mr. Culverton Smith, since I understand that you met somewhat earlier in the evening. Have you the cab below? I will follow you when I am dressed, for I may be of some use at the station.
+
+“I never needed it more,” said Holmes as he refreshed himself with a glass of claret and some biscuits in the intervals of his toilet. “However, as you know, my habits are irregular, and such a feat means less to me than to most men. It was very essential that I should impress Mrs. Hudson with the reality of my condition, since she was to convey it to you, and you in turn to him. You won't be offended, Watson? You will realize that among your many talents dissimulation finds no place, and that if you had shared my secret you would never have been able to impress Smith with the urgent necessity of his presence, which was the vital point of the whole scheme. Knowing his vindictive nature, I was perfectly certain that he would come to look upon his handiwork.”
+
+“But your appearance, Holmes—your ghastly face?”
+
+“Three days of absolute fast does not improve one's beauty, Watson. For the rest, there is nothing which a sponge may not cure. With vaseline upon one's forehead, belladonna in one's eyes, rouge over the cheek-bones, and crusts of beeswax round one's lips, a very satisfying effect can be produced. Malingering is a subject upon which I have sometimes thought of writing a monograph. A little occasional talk about half-crowns, oysters, or any other extraneous subject produces a pleasing effect of delirium.”
+
+“But why would you not let me near you, since there was in truth no infection?”
+
+“Can you ask, my dear Watson? Do you imagine that I have no respect for your medical talents? Could I fancy that your astute judgment would pass a dying man who, however weak, had no rise of pulse or temperature? At four yards, I could deceive you. If I failed to do so, who would bring my Smith within my grasp? No, Watson, I would not touch that box. You can just see if you look at it sideways where the sharp spring like a viper's tooth emerges as you open it. I dare say it was by some such device that poor Savage, who stood between this monster and a reversion, was done to death. My correspondence, however, is, as you know, a varied one, and I am somewhat upon my guard against any packages which reach me. It was clear to me, however, that by pretending that he had really succeeded in his design I might surprise a confession. That pretence I have carried out with the thoroughness of the true artist. Thank you, Watson, you must help me on with my coat. When we have finished at the police-station I think that something nutritious at Simpson's would not be out of place.”
+
+[Text taken from here](http://sherlock-holm.es/stories/html/dyin.html)

_posts/2012-07-24-the-adventure-of-the-veiled-lodger.md

@@ -0,0 +1,201 @@
+---
+layout: default
+title: "The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger"
+author: "Arthur Conan Doyle"
+categories: literature
+---
+
+# The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger
+by Arthur Conan Doyle
+
+When one considers that Mr. Sherlock Holmes was in active practice for twenty-three years, and that during seventeen of these I was allowed to cooperate with him and to keep notes of his doings, it will be clear that I have a mass of material at my command. The problem has always been not to find but to choose. There is the long row of year-books which fill a shelf, and there are the dispatch-cases filled with documents, a perfect quarry for the student not only of crime but of the social and official scandals of the late Victorian era. Concerning these latter, I may say that the writers of agonized letters, who beg that the honour of their families or the reputation of famous forebears may not be touched, have nothing to fear. The discretion and high sense of professional honour which have always distinguished my friend are still at work in the choice of these memoirs, and no confidence will be abused. I deprecate, however, in the strongest way the attempts which have been made lately to get at and to destroy these papers. The source of these outrages is known, and if they are repeated I have Mr. Holmes's authority for saying that the whole story concerning the politician, the lighthouse, and the trained cormorant will be given to the public. There is at least one reader who will understand.
+
+It is not reasonable to suppose that every one of these cases gave Holmes the opportunity of showing those curious gifts of instinct and observation which I have endeavoured to set forth in these memoirs. Sometimes he had with much effort to pick the fruit, sometimes it fell easily into his lap. But the most terrible human tragedies were often involved in those cases which brought him the fewest personal opportunities, and it is one of these which I now desire to record. In telling it, I have made a slight change of name and place, but otherwise the facts are as stated.
+
+One forenoon—it was late in 1896—I received a hurried note from Holmes asking for my attendance. When I arrived I found him seated in a smoke-laden atmosphere, with an elderly, motherly woman of the buxom landlady type in the corresponding chair in front of him.
+
+“This is Mrs. Merrilow, of South Brixton,” said my friend with a wave of the hand. “Mrs. Merrilow does not object to tobacco, Watson, if you wish to indulge your filthy habits. Mrs. Merrilow has an interesting story to tell which may well lead to further developments in which your presence may be useful.”
+
+“Anything I can do—”
+
+“You will understand, Mrs. Merrilow, that if I come to Mrs. Ronder I should prefer to have a witness. You will make her understand that before we arrive.”
+
+“Lord bless you, Mr. Holmes,” said our visitor, “she is that anxious to see you that you might bring the whole parish at your heels!”
+
+“Then we shall come early in the afternoon. Let us see that we have our facts correct before we start. If we go over them it will help Dr. Watson to understand the situation. You say that Mrs. Ronder has been your lodger for seven years and that you have only once seen her face.”
+
+“And I wish to God I had not!” said Mrs. Merrilow.
+
+“It was, I understand, terribly mutilated.”
+
+“Well, Mr. Holmes, you would hardly say it was a face at all. That's how it looked. Our milkman got a glimpse of her once peeping out of the upper window, and he dropped his tin and the milk all over the front garden. That is the kind of face it is. When I saw her—I happened on her unawares—she covered up quick, and then she said, ‘Now, Mrs. Merrilow, you know at last why it is that I never raise my veil.’”
+
+“Do you know anything about her history?”
+
+“Nothing at all.”
+
+“Did she give references when she came?”
+
+“No, sir, but she gave hard cash, and plenty of it. A quarter's rent right down on the table in advance and no arguing about terms. In these times a poor woman like me can't afford to turn down a chance like that.”
+
+“Did she give any reason for choosing your house?”
+
+“Mine stands well back from the road and is more private than most. Then, again, I only take the one, and I have no family of my own. I reckon she had tried others and found that mine suited her best. It's privacy she is after, and she is ready to pay for it.”
+
+“You say that she never showed her face from first to last save on the one accidental occasion. Well, it is a very remarkable story, most remarkable, and I don't wonder that you want it examined.”
+
+“I don't, Mr. Holmes. I am quite satisfied so long as I get my rent. You could not have a quieter lodger, or one who gives less trouble.”
+
+“Then what has brought matters to a head?”
+
+“Her health, Mr. Holmes. She seems to be wasting away. And there's something terrible on her mind. ‘Murder!’ she cries. ‘Murder!’ And once I heard her: ‘You cruel beast! You monster!’ she cried. It was in the night, and it fair rang through the house and sent the shivers through me. So I went to her in the morning. ‘Mrs. Ronder,’ I says, ‘if you have anything that is troubling your soul, there's the clergy,’ I says, ‘and there's the police. Between them you should get some help.’ ‘For God's sake, not the police!’ says she, ‘and the clergy can't change what is past. And yet,’ she says, ‘it would ease my mind if someone knew the truth before I died.’ ‘Well,’ says I, ‘if you won't have the regulars, there is this detective man what we read about’—beggin' your pardon, Mr. Holmes. And she, she fair jumped at it. ‘That's the man,’ says she. ‘I wonder I never thought of it before. Bring him here, Mrs. Merrilow, and if he won't come, tell him I am the wife of Ronder's wild beast show. Say that, and give him the name Abbas Parva. Here it is as she wrote it, Abbas Parva. ‘That will bring him if he's the man I think he is.’”
+
+“And it will, too,” remarked Holmes. “Very good, Mrs. Merrilow. I should like to have a little chat with Dr. Watson. That will carry us till lunch-time. About three o'clock you may expect to see us at your house in Brixton.”
+
+Our visitor had no sooner waddled out of the room—no other verb can describe Mrs. Merrilow's method of progression—than Sherlock Holmes threw himself with fierce energy upon the pile of commonplace books in the corner. For a few minutes there was a constant swish of the leaves, and then with a grunt of satisfaction he came upon what he sought. So excited was he that he did not rise, but sat upon the floor like some strange Buddha, with crossed legs, the huge books all round him, and one open upon his knees.
+
+“The case worried me at the time, Watson. Here are my marginal notes to prove it. I confess that I could make nothing of it. And yet I was convinced that the coroner was wrong. Have you no recollection of the Abbas Parva tragedy?”
+
+“None, Holmes.”
+
+“And yet you were with me then. But certainly my own impression was very superficial. For there was nothing to go by, and none of the parties had engaged my services. Perhaps you would care to read the papers?”
+
+“Could you not give me the points?”
+
+“That is very easily done. It will probably come back to your memory as I talk. Ronder, of course, was a household word. He was the rival of Wombwell, and of Sanger, one of the greatest showmen of his day. There is evidence, however, that he took to drink, and that both he and his show were on the down grade at the time of the great tragedy. The caravan had halted for the night at Abbas Parva, which is a small village in Berkshire, when this horror occurred. They were on their way to Wimbledon, travelling by road, and they were simply camping and not exhibiting, as the place is so small a one that it would not have paid them to open.
+
+“They had among their exhibits a very fine North African lion. Sahara King was its name, and it was the habit, both of Ronder and his wife, to give exhibitions inside its cage. Here, you see, is a photograph of the performance by which you will perceive that Ronder was a huge porcine person and that his wife was a very magnificent woman. It was deposed at the inquest that there had been some signs that the lion was dangerous, but, as usual, familiarity begat contempt, and no notice was taken of the fact.
+
+“It was usual for either Ronder or his wife to feed the lion at night. Sometimes one went, sometimes both, but they never allowed anyone else to do it, for they believed that so long as they were the food-carriers he would regard them as benefactors and would never molest them. On this particular night, seven years ago, they both went, and a very terrible happening followed, the details of which have never been made clear.
+
+“It seems that the whole camp was roused near midnight by the roars of the animal and the screams of the woman. The different grooms and employees rushed from their tents, carrying lanterns, and by their light an awful sight was revealed. Ronder lay, with the back of his head crushed in and deep claw-marks across his scalp, some ten yards from the cage, which was open. Close to the door of the cage lay Mrs. Ronder upon her back, with the creature squatting and snarling above her. It had torn her face in such a fashion that it was never thought that she could live. Several of the circus men, headed by Leonardo, the strong man, and Griggs, the clown, drove the creature off with poles, upon which it sprang back into the cage and was at once locked in. How it had got loose was a mystery. It was conjectured that the pair intended to enter the cage, but that when the door was loosed the creature bounded out upon them. There was no other point of interest in the evidence save that the woman in a delirium of agony kept screaming, ‘Coward! Coward!’ as she was carried back to the van in which they lived. It was six months before she was fit to give evidence, but the inquest was duly held, with the obvious verdict of death from misadventure.”
+
+“What alternative could be conceived?” said I.
+
+“You may well say so. And yet there were one or two points which worried young Edmunds, of the Berkshire Constabulary. A smart lad that! He was sent later to Allahabad. That was how I came into the matter, for he dropped in and smoked a pipe or two over it.”
+
+“A thin, yellow-haired man?”
+
+“Exactly. I was sure you would pick up the trail presently.”
+
+“But what worried him?”
+
+“Well, we were both worried. It was so deucedly difficult to reconstruct the affair. Look at it from the lion's point of view. He is liberated. What does he do? He takes half a dozen bounds forward, which brings him to Ronder. Ronder turns to fly—the claw-marks were on the back of his head—but the lion strikes him down. Then, instead of bounding on and escaping, he returns to the woman, who was close to the cage, and he knocks her over and chews her face up. Then, again, those cries of hers would seem to imply that her husband had in some way failed her. What could the poor devil have done to help her? You see the difficulty?”
+
+“Quite.”
+
+“And then there was another thing. It comes back to me now as I think it over. There was some evidence that just at the time the lion roared and the woman screamed, a man began shouting in terror.”
+
+“This man Ronder, no doubt.”
+
+“Well, if his skull was smashed in you would hardly expect to hear from him again. There were at least two witnesses who spoke of the cries of a man being mingled with those of a woman.”
+
+“I should think the whole camp was crying out by then. As to the other points, I think I could suggest a solution.”
+
+“I should be glad to consider it.”
+
+“The two were together, ten yards from the cage, when the lion got loose. The man turned and was struck down. The woman conceived the idea of getting into the cage and shutting the door. It was her only refuge. She made for it, and just as she reached it the beast bounded after her and knocked her over. She was angry with her husband for having encouraged the beast's rage by turning. If they had faced it they might have cowed it. Hence her cries of ‘Coward!’”
+
+“Brilliant, Watson! Only one flaw in your diamond.”
+
+“What is the flaw, Holmes?”
+
+“If they were both ten paces from the cage, how came the beast to get loose?”
+
+“Is it possible that they had some enemy who loosed it?”
+
+“And why should it attack them savagely when it was in the habit of playing with them, and doing tricks with them inside the cage?”
+
+“Possibly the same enemy had done something to enrage it.”
+
+Holmes looked thoughtful and remained in silence for some moments.
+
+“Well, Watson, there is this to be said for your theory. Ronder was a man of many enemies. Edmunds told me that in his cups he was horrible. A huge bully of a man, he cursed and slashed at everyone who came in his way. I expect those cries about a monster, of which our visitor has spoken, were nocturnal reminiscences of the dear departed. However, our speculations are futile until we have all the facts. There is a cold partridge on the sideboard, Watson, and a bottle of Montrachet. Let us renew our energies before we make a fresh call upon them.”
+
+When our hansom deposited us at the house of Mrs. Merrilow, we found that plump lady blocking up the open door of her humble but retired abode. It was very clear that her chief preoccupation was lest she should lose a valuable lodger, and she implored us, before showing us up, to say and do nothing which could lead to so undesirable an end. Then, having reassured her, we followed her up the straight, badly carpeted staircase and were shown into the room of the mysterious lodger.
+
+It was a close, musty, ill-ventilated place, as might be expected, since its inmate seldom left it. From keeping beasts in a cage, the woman seemed, by some retribution of fate, to have become herself a beast in a cage. She sat now in a broken armchair in the shadowy corner of the room. Long years of inaction had coarsened the lines of her figure, but at some period it must have been beautiful, and was still full and voluptuous. A thick dark veil covered her face, but it was cut off close at her upper lip and disclosed a perfectly shaped mouth and a delicately rounded chin. I could well conceive that she had indeed been a very remarkable woman. Her voice, too, was well modulated and pleasing.
+
+“My name is not unfamiliar to you, Mr. Holmes,” said she. “I thought that it would bring you.”
+
+“That is so, madam, though I do not know how you are aware that I was interested in your case.”
+
+“I learned it when I had recovered my health and was examined by Mr. Edmunds, the county detective. I fear I lied to him. Perhaps it would have been wiser had I told the truth.”
+
+“It is usually wiser to tell the truth. But why did you lie to him?”
+
+“Because the fate of someone else depended upon it. I know that he was a very worthless being, and yet I would not have his destruction upon my conscience. We had been so close—so close!”
+
+“But has this impediment been removed?”
+
+“Yes, sir. The person that I allude to is dead.”
+
+“Then why should you not now tell the police anything you know?”
+
+“Because there is another person to be considered. That other person is myself. I could not stand the scandal and publicity which would come from a police examination. I have not long to live, but I wish to die undisturbed. And yet I wanted to find one man of judgment to whom I could tell my terrible story, so that when I am gone all might be understood.”
+
+“You compliment me, madam. At the same time, I am a responsible person. I do not promise you that when you have spoken I may not myself think it my duty to refer the case to the police.”
+
+“I think not, Mr. Holmes. I know your character and methods too well, for I have followed your work for some years. Reading is the only pleasure which fate has left me, and I miss little which passes in the world. But in any case, I will take my chance of the use which you may make of my tragedy. It will ease my mind to tell it.”
+
+“My friend and I would be glad to hear it.”
+
+The woman rose and took from a drawer the photograph of a man. He was clearly a professional acrobat, a man of magnificent physique, taken with his huge arms folded across his swollen chest and a smile breaking from under his heavy moustache—the self-satisfied smile of the man of many conquests.
+
+“That is Leonardo,” she said.
+
+“Leonardo, the strong man, who gave evidence?”
+
+“The same. And this—this is my husband.”
+
+It was a dreadful face—a human pig, or rather a human wild boar, for it was formidable in its bestiality. One could imagine that vile mouth champing and foaming in its rage, and one could conceive those small, vicious eyes darting pure malignancy as they looked forth upon the world. Ruffian, bully, beast—it was all written on that heavy-jowled face.
+
+“Those two pictures will help you, gentlemen, to understand the story. I was a poor circus girl brought up on the sawdust, and doing springs through the hoop before I was ten. When I became a woman this man loved me, if such lust as his can be called love, and in an evil moment I became his wife. From that day I was in hell, and he the devil who tormented me. There was no one in the show who did not know of his treatment. He deserted me for others. He tied me down and lashed me with his riding-whip when I complained. They all pitied me and they all loathed him, but what could they do? They feared him, one and all. For he was terrible at all times, and murderous when he was drunk. Again and again he was had up for assault, and for cruelty to the beasts, but he had plenty of money and the fines were nothing to him. The best men all left us, and the show began to go downhill. It was only Leonardo and I who kept it up—with little Jimmy Griggs, the clown. Poor devil, he had not much to be funny about, but he did what he could to hold things together.
+
+“Then Leonardo came more and more into my life. You see what he was like. I know now the poor spirit that was hidden in that splendid body, but compared to my husband he seemed like the angel Gabriel. He pitied me and helped me, till at last our intimacy turned to love—deep, deep, passionate love, such love as I had dreamed of but never hoped to feel. My husband suspected it, but I think that he was a coward as well as a bully, and that Leonardo was the one man that he was afraid of. He took revenge in his own way by torturing me more than ever. One night my cries brought Leonardo to the door of our van. We were near tragedy that night, and soon my lover and I understood that it could not be avoided. My husband was not fit to live. We planned that he should die.
+
+“Leonardo had a clever, scheming brain. It was he who planned it. I do not say that to blame him, for I was ready to go with him every inch of the way. But I should never have had the wit to think of such a plan. We made a club—Leonardo made it—and in the leaden head he fastened five long steel nails, the points outward, with just such a spread as the lion's paw. This was to give my husband his death-blow, and yet to leave the evidence that it was the lion which we would loose who had done the deed.
+
+“It was a pitch-dark night when my husband and I went down, as was our custom, to feed the beast. We carried with us the raw meat in a zinc pail. Leonardo was waiting at the corner of the big van which we should have to pass before we reached the cage. He was too slow, and we walked past him before he could strike, but he followed us on tiptoe and I heard the crash as the club smashed my husband's skull. My heart leaped with joy at the sound. I sprang forward, and I undid the catch which held the door of the great lion's cage.
+
+“And then the terrible thing happened. You may have heard how quick these creatures are to scent human blood, and how it excites them. Some strange instinct had told the creature in one instant that a human being had been slain. As I slipped the bars it bounded out and was on me in an instant. Leonardo could have saved me. If he had rushed forward and struck the beast with his club he might have cowed it. But the man lost his nerve. I heard him shout in his terror, and then I saw him turn and fly. At the same instant the teeth of the lion met in my face. Its hot, filthy breath had already poisoned me and I was hardly conscious of pain. With the palms of my hands I tried to push the great steaming, blood-stained jaws away from me, and I screamed for help. I was conscious that the camp was stirring, and then dimly I remembered a group of men. Leonardo, Griggs, and others, dragging me from under the creature's paws. That was my last memory, Mr. Holmes, for many a weary month. When I came to myself and saw myself in the mirror, I cursed that lion—oh, how I cursed him!—not because he had torn away my beauty but because he had not torn away my life. I had but one desire, Mr. Holmes, and I had enough money to gratify it. It was that I should cover myself so that my poor face should be seen by none, and that I should dwell where none whom I had ever known should find me. That was all that was left to me to do—and that is what I have done. A poor wounded beast that has crawled into its hole to die—that is the end of Eugenia Ronder.”
+
+We sat in silence for some time after the unhappy woman had told her story. Then Holmes stretched out his long arm and patted her hand with such a show of sympathy as I had seldom known him to exhibit.
+
+“Poor girl!” he said. “Poor girl! The ways of fate are indeed hard to understand. If there is not some compensation hereafter, then the world is a cruel jest. But what of this man Leonardo?”
+
+“I never saw him or heard from him again. Perhaps I have been wrong to feel so bitterly against him. He might as soon have loved one of the freaks whom we carried round the country as the thing which the lion had left. But a woman's love is not so easily set aside. He had left me under the beast's claws, he had deserted me in my need, and yet I could not bring myself to give him to the gallows. For myself, I cared nothing what became of me. What could be more dreadful than my actual life? But I stood between Leonardo and his fate.”
+
+“And he is dead?”
+
+“He was drowned last month when bathing near Margate. I saw his death in the paper.”
+
+“And what did he do with this five-clawed club, which is the most singular and ingenious part of all your story?”
+
+“I cannot tell, Mr. Holmes. There is a chalk-pit by the camp, with a deep green pool at the base of it. Perhaps in the depths of that pool—”
+
+“Well, well, it is of little consequence now. The case is closed.”
+
+“Yes,” said the woman, “the case is closed.”
+
+We had risen to go, but there was something in the woman's voice which arrested Holmes's attention. He turned swiftly upon her.
+
+“Your life is not your own,” he said. “Keep your hands off it.”
+
+“What use is it to anyone?”
+
+“How can you tell? The example of patient suffering is in itself the most precious of all lessons to an impatient world.”
+
+The woman's answer was a terrible one. She raised her veil and stepped forward into the light.
+
+“I wonder if you would bear it,” she said.
+
+It was horrible. No words can describe the framework of a face when the face itself is gone. Two living and beautiful brown eyes looking sadly out from that grisly ruin did but make the view more awful. Holmes held up his hand in a gesture of pity and protest, and together we left the room.
+
+Two days later, when I called upon my friend, he pointed with some pride to a small blue bottle upon his mantelpiece. I picked it up. There was a red poison label. A pleasant almondy odour rose when I opened it.
+
+“Prussic acid?” said I.
+
+“Exactly. It came by post. ‘I send you my temptation. I will follow your advice.’ That was the message. I think, Watson, we can guess the name of the brave woman who sent it.”
+
+[Text taken from here](http://sherlock-holm.es/stories/html/veil.html)

_posts/2013-12-18-bacon-ipsum-short.md

@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: "Bacon Ipsum (Short)"
+categories: loremipsum
+---
+
+Bacon ipsum dolor sit amet flank sunt jerky dolore beef. Ut aute ham hock hamburger pork loin dolor esse ground round tenderloin consequat chicken veniam enim. Dolore kielbasa kevin andouille flank id consectetur chicken voluptate tenderloin. Jerky beef ribs tri-tip, kielbasa tail corned beef non. Sausage id ex kielbasa meatloaf sed drumstick ad kevin landjaeger ut. Consequat venison frankfurter, culpa swine aliquip turkey tempor beef. Prosciutto shank boudin leberkas pastrami.
+
+Pancetta aliqua boudin, spare ribs pork salami ut consectetur ham exercitation jowl voluptate officia et irure. Tongue ground round pork belly deserunt. Sint chuck proident short ribs incididunt, nisi beef ribs pariatur drumstick rump brisket. Sausage beef ribs proident, brisket non ea turducken meatloaf bacon pariatur bresaola excepteur velit flank sed. Ea ad corned beef andouille velit excepteur voluptate flank pancetta, mollit et short loin tenderloin cillum. Jerky tri-tip magna, adipisicing boudin tongue ut sed laboris fugiat pork chop salami pancetta.

_posts/2013-12-18-bacon-ipsum-tiny.md

@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+---
+layout: default
+title: "Bacon Ipsum (Tiny)"
+categories: loremipsum
+---
+
+Bacon ipsum dolor sit amet flank sunt jerky dolore beef. Ut aute ham hock hamburger pork loin dolor esse ground round tenderloin consequat chicken veniam enim. Dolore kielbasa kevin andouille flank id consectetur chicken voluptate tenderloin.

_posts/2013-12-24-bacon-ipsum-long.md

@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: "Bacon Ipsum (Long)"
+categories: loremipsum
+---
+
+Bacon ipsum dolor sit amet flank sunt jerky dolore beef. Ut aute ham hock hamburger pork loin dolor esse ground round tenderloin consequat chicken veniam enim. Dolore kielbasa kevin andouille flank id consectetur chicken voluptate tenderloin. Jerky beef ribs tri-tip, kielbasa tail corned beef non. Sausage id ex kielbasa meatloaf sed drumstick ad kevin landjaeger ut. Consequat venison frankfurter, culpa swine aliquip turkey tempor beef. Prosciutto shank boudin leberkas pastrami.
+
+Pancetta aliqua boudin, spare ribs pork salami ut consectetur ham exercitation jowl voluptate officia et irure. Tongue ground round pork belly deserunt. Sint chuck proident short ribs incididunt, nisi beef ribs pariatur drumstick rump brisket. Sausage beef ribs proident, brisket non ea turducken meatloaf bacon pariatur bresaola excepteur velit flank sed. Ea ad corned beef andouille velit excepteur voluptate flank pancetta, mollit et short loin tenderloin cillum. Jerky tri-tip magna, adipisicing boudin tongue ut sed laboris fugiat pork chop salami pancetta.
+
+Excepteur kielbasa elit, eu turkey est incididunt. Ham dolore pork loin leberkas pig cow chuck salami meatloaf in ex do consequat ut tongue. In proident quis consectetur adipisicing frankfurter. Non turducken ham hock kielbasa excepteur short loin. Spare ribs bacon rump commodo short loin ground round chuck ball tip meatloaf in officia.
+
+Ut est kielbasa, labore short loin salami officia corned beef shankle jowl frankfurter sunt. Andouille shoulder minim laborum est, proident officia. Fugiat ut t-bone, dolore bacon irure ham sirloin jowl strip steak nisi sed. Capicola dolor ribeye, spare ribs irure shoulder pork commodo incididunt consectetur. Reprehenderit cupidatat ribeye, commodo prosciutto non laborum et strip steak jowl chuck bresaola.
+
+Qui corned beef aliquip fatback. Kielbasa sed consequat aute venison biltong dolore. Frankfurter chuck pancetta, laborum drumstick flank leberkas dolore irure hamburger brisket ad in aute. In ut est beef dolore bresaola velit pariatur.
+
+Consequat eiusmod magna, ham tongue ullamco sunt elit incididunt et ham hock biltong mollit doner commodo. Corned beef enim voluptate, cupidatat ut eu in pork flank qui fugiat et dolore chicken minim. Et ham hock commodo, cow proident officia aliquip aute tri-tip ground round doner dolore ullamco pancetta. Sausage incididunt ut, ullamco minim shank turducken. Rump deserunt hamburger jerky pancetta. Commodo venison shoulder, pastrami dolore salami ad turkey flank minim excepteur. Capicola kevin corned beef non, ham nisi hamburger shankle.
+
+Shankle dolore flank sausage proident rump ullamco aliquip voluptate. Sed pastrami beef ribs rump filet mignon veniam chuck. In dolore tenderloin aliquip boudin frankfurter ullamco. Enim shank pork loin, brisket cupidatat ham hock proident qui pig do filet mignon hamburger consequat minim. Tongue nostrud pork loin chicken, meatloaf pork belly voluptate ex elit reprehenderit sirloin. Corned beef culpa drumstick, pork chop bacon ex cow ribeye chicken labore cillum pork loin ham.
+
+Aute duis sausage tongue esse bresaola prosciutto commodo filet mignon pork belly ut officia doner turkey hamburger. Beef ribs filet mignon aliquip turkey. Velit minim flank drumstick ham. Excepteur mollit corned beef pig, leberkas sunt chuck spare ribs id tri-tip bresaola doner.
+
+Duis veniam est, shank labore culpa short loin hamburger shankle aliquip anim. T-bone ex landjaeger sunt, do tail officia turducken ut labore laborum. Meatball doner rump, ham aute veniam consequat biltong swine venison. Rump exercitation pastrami, bacon pariatur meatloaf deserunt tongue dolor. Tongue fugiat tenderloin venison beef kielbasa. Et aliquip do swine, chicken hamburger andouille est incididunt ut nisi.
+
+Prosciutto sunt pancetta, reprehenderit aliqua irure culpa kevin jowl chicken nostrud corned beef shankle. Leberkas tri-tip in, meatloaf strip steak flank capicola. Ad beef ribs turducken ex fatback occaecat excepteur. Ribeye ut chicken salami nostrud hamburger pariatur nisi anim mollit. Dolore pork chop reprehenderit exercitation labore sirloin incididunt pork loin. Non ribeye irure prosciutto. Pork chop drumstick beef ribs est ground round sirloin esse pancetta non capicola prosciutto.
+
+Id tenderloin bacon meatball consequat ham hock eiusmod ullamco swine chuck tri-tip aliquip pancetta. Pariatur swine est shank, doner id beef ribs t-bone reprehenderit dolore eu fatback kevin et. Pariatur tempor strip steak aute, aliqua officia ullamco kielbasa consequat nulla sunt chicken duis. Turkey tongue meatloaf aliqua velit boudin flank. Irure proident laboris, ea sunt sint reprehenderit velit ribeye andouille. Do beef ribs strip steak, voluptate shoulder pariatur minim. Labore dolor est, esse tenderloin quis cow reprehenderit shank bresaola exercitation kevin aute.
+
+Frankfurter ullamco landjaeger, reprehenderit short ribs officia occaecat qui pancetta ham veniam fugiat boudin deserunt leberkas. Shank tri-tip pork loin enim fatback do mollit ut. Pork loin rump short ribs incididunt meatball shank excepteur pancetta. Pork loin fugiat pastrami turkey. Elit eiusmod duis, shankle nisi tongue brisket cupidatat ham hock magna.
+
+Pork belly id strip steak pork chop commodo. Ut t-bone in, minim consectetur turducken nulla bacon irure ea. Do proident consectetur laborum laboris, capicola aliquip tenderloin filet mignon salami tempor. Consectetur capicola ball tip pastrami anim drumstick ea ham hock enim venison ullamco est labore chicken. Deserunt doner qui flank beef, kielbasa pariatur id in elit.
+
+Salami exercitation frankfurter veniam. Tail beef ut beef ribs veniam. Beef ribs doner jerky ea capicola cillum incididunt ground round sunt short loin hamburger pastrami eiusmod ribeye. Aute strip steak cupidatat, pork chop deserunt sint ground round. Pork loin mollit minim nulla pariatur. In tri-tip pork chop, pork belly beef ribs quis culpa elit fugiat sint.
+
+Turkey pork chop flank biltong beef. Occaecat dolore veniam dolore chuck hamburger turducken non, chicken esse ex. Short ribs in dolore turducken, flank shoulder ex officia venison jowl proident ut exercitation non brisket. Short loin tail irure beef in dolore. Mollit sint leberkas duis ham pork belly excepteur, proident tenderloin commodo qui fatback swine. Filet mignon do venison et excepteur ullamco.
+
+Laboris do biltong, tail doner short loin short ribs excepteur. Ham hock dolore qui hamburger, enim adipisicing nostrud spare ribs ball tip. Proident ut et in, aute fugiat spare ribs esse ribeye. Ham hock occaecat anim, et shank tenderloin nostrud.
+
+Swine leberkas ham beef est. Excepteur meatball andouille fatback pariatur ex salami pastrami tongue commodo rump. Nisi aliquip pariatur laboris, pork belly meatloaf fatback quis. Veniam do chicken tempor. Occaecat esse spare ribs aliqua eu. Ham aliquip in ex proident enim sed nulla ea brisket cow. Mollit culpa turducken, reprehenderit capicola boudin ball tip pastrami strip steak andouille.
+
+Esse tail excepteur tempor short loin laborum. Drumstick eiusmod beef ribs t-bone sint nisi. Eu ullamco pancetta nisi. Do filet mignon chuck ea cupidatat pork chop veniam. Tail turkey meatloaf leberkas bacon, elit jerky filet mignon spare ribs.
+
+Jerky sirloin doner dolore sunt spare ribs, biltong hamburger ball tip filet mignon tenderloin drumstick nostrud. Jowl shoulder labore do, venison chicken culpa boudin ham hock tri-tip. T-bone dolore minim anim, in deserunt velit esse beef. Consectetur anim jerky culpa fugiat ut sint ut t-bone cupidatat. Venison irure tongue chicken.
+
+Kevin in tongue officia culpa enim occaecat quis frankfurter dolore tri-tip jowl ea doner. Ex non ad do doner short loin magna tri-tip. Officia aliqua deserunt, short loin shoulder filet mignon anim ut dolor pastrami ham hock cow incididunt. Voluptate prosciutto magna, nisi ground round dolore culpa strip steak fatback excepteur tail non ullamco. Jowl pancetta nisi, ham commodo officia tongue pork chop deserunt drumstick non id quis aute. Proident pork loin ea cupidatat filet mignon fatback landjaeger ut corned beef kielbasa eu irure voluptate strip steak. Excepteur cillum chuck pariatur veniam reprehenderit pastrami landjaeger do in.

_posts/2014-01-12-really-long-title-post.md

@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: "Some really obnoxiously long post title could be possible so just make sure it doesn't break all the things for real, yo, okay?"
+---
+
+Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Curabitur sodales ac orci vitae vulputate. Maecenas in tortor non metus euismod sollicitudin. Etiam tincidunt pretium diam gravida elementum. Phasellus eu lacus ut massa sagittis suscipit eget eu dui. Donec metus enim, sodales convallis mauris varius, vestibulum sollicitudin lorem. Mauris venenatis nulla ut eros blandit gravida. Nulla gravida, tortor nec dapibus suscipit, eros enim consequat odio, at tempus massa sapien vel felis. Mauris iaculis massa mi.
+
+Integer mollis tortor ac adipiscing facilisis. Donec egestas vel ligula vitae vestibulum. Fusce laoreet ligula nec luctus vestibulum. Sed et odio metus. Aliquam interdum vel elit et lacinia. Sed porta consectetur ligula, non bibendum nulla varius sit amet. Nullam a feugiat massa. Fusce quis augue at enim aliquam sodales a nec nulla. Morbi fringilla nulla et dui laoreet ornare. Praesent id turpis urna. Quisque mattis in tellus in cursus. Proin pellentesque mollis nisi quis faucibus. Fusce in laoreet neque. Nunc in risus non turpis tristique vulputate in bibendum tellus.
+
+Sed quis sem consectetur, mattis nunc vel, tincidunt est. Vivamus vitae risus eget erat varius fermentum non sed nisi. Fusce eget diam in tellus aliquet suscipit ac non dolor. Suspendisse pretium elit vel mauris convallis aliquet. Etiam blandit, nulla ut posuere pulvinar, enim mi imperdiet quam, aliquam tincidunt tellus est nec velit. Aliquam ut ante tincidunt, commodo dolor id, accumsan nunc. Mauris semper dolor a ligula vulputate adipiscing. Nam euismod velit massa, vitae sodales tortor consectetur nec. Vivamus nec nisl at nulla hendrerit porttitor. Aliquam a nibh et nunc blandit vestibulum. Quisque odio risus, volutpat eget rhoncus vel, rutrum sed mi. Ut id mi eget risus volutpat imperdiet lacinia in justo. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Aliquam a nunc elementum, accumsan nibh vel, ornare quam. Cras tellus sapien, blandit in mattis sit amet, ultricies non ligula. Phasellus pharetra tincidunt elit, sit amet gravida sapien tincidunt sit amet.

_sass/_article.scss

@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+article > * {
+  margin: auto;
+  max-width: 36rem;
+}
+
+article > h1 {
+  font-size: 2em;
+  max-width: 48rem;
+  padding: 2em 0;
+  text-align: center;
+}
+
+article p {
+  text-align: justify;
+  text-indent: 1.5em;
+  text-justify: inter-word;
+  &:first-of-type {
+    text-indent: 0;
+  }
+}
+
+.article-meta {
+  margin-bottom: 2em;
+  margin-top: 2em;
+  text-align: right;
+}
+
+.back-link {
+  display: inline-block;
+  padding: $spacing-unit;
+  text-decoration: none;
+}

_sass/_base.scss

@@ -0,0 +1,68 @@
+body {
+  color: $text-color;
+  font-family: Baskerville, "Times New Roman", serif;
+  font-size: 1.25em;
+  line-height: 1.325;
+}
+
+a {
+  color: $text-color;
+}
+
+hr {
+  border: 0;
+  height: 0;
+  &:after {
+    @include divider;
+  }
+}
+
+.home {
+  max-width: 30em;
+  margin: auto;
+  padding: ($spacing-unit * 4) $spacing-unit;
+}
+
+.home h1 {
+  font-size: 2em;
+  padding: 2em 0;
+  text-align: center;
+}
+
+.post-list {
+  margin: 1em 0;
+  list-style: none;
+}
+
+.post-link {
+  color: $text-color;
+  display: flex;
+  flex-direction: column-reverse;
+  text-decoration: none;
+  padding: .25em 0;
+  .post-title {
+    display: block;
+    padding: .25em 0;
+  }
+  &:hover .post-title,
+  &:focus .post-title {
+    text-decoration: underline;
+  }
+  @media (min-width: $on-tablet) {
+    display: flex;
+    flex-direction: row;
+    justify-content: space-between;
+    .post-title {
+      margin-right: 4em;
+    }
+  }
+}
+
+.post-date {
+  color: $muted-text-color;
+  display: block;
+  font-size: .825em;
+  padding: .5em 0;
+  white-space: nowrap;
+  text-transform: uppercase;
+}

_sass/_masthead.scss

@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+.site-masthead {
+  background: $brand-color;
+  min-height: 100vh;
+  box-sizing: border-box;
+
+  display: flex;
+  flex-direction: column;
+  align-items: center;
+  justify-content: center;
+  text-align: center;
+  padding: $spacing-unit * 2;
+}
+
+.site-masthead h1 {
+  font-size: 3em;
+  margin-bottom: .125em;
+  @media (min-width: $on-tablet) {
+    font-size: 6em;
+  }
+}
+
+.site-masthead h2 {
+  color: $muted-text-color;
+  font-size: 1.5em;
+  @media (min-width: $on-tablet) {
+    font-size: 3em;
+  }
+}

_sass/_mixins.scss

@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+@mixin divider {
+  content: "\0FC0 \27A4";
+
+}

_sass/_reset.scss

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+html,body,div,span,object,iframe,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,p,blockquote,pre,abbr,address,cite,code,del,dfn,em,img,ins,kbd,q,samp,small,strong,sub,sup,var,b,i,dl,dt,dd,ol,ul,li,fieldset,form,label,legend,table,caption,tbody,tfoot,thead,tr,th,td,article,aside,canvas,details,figcaption,figure,footer,header,hgroup,menu,nav,section,summary,time,mark,audio,video{border:0;font-size:100%;font:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;margin:0;padding:0}article,aside,details,figcaption,figure,footer,header,hgroup,menu,nav,section{display:block}blockquote,q{quotes:none}blockquote:before,blockquote:after,q:before,q:after{content:none}ins{background-color:#ff9;color:#000;text-decoration:none}mark{background-color:#ff9;color:#000;font-style:italic;font-weight:700}del{text-decoration:line-through}abbr[title],dfn[title]{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}table{border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:0}hr{display:block;height:1px;border:0;border-top:1px solid #ccc;margin:1em 0;padding:0}input,select{vertical-align:middle} .clearfix:after{clear:both;content:' ';display:block;font-size:0;line-height:0;visibility:hidden;width:0;height:0}.clearfix{display:inline-block}* html .clearfix{height:1%}.clearfix{display:block}

_sass/_variables.scss

@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+$brand-color:         #f2e300;
+$text-color:          #0b0404;
+$muted-text-color:    #79785b;
+
+$spacing-unit:        1rem;
+
+$on-bigphone:         375px;
+$on-tablet:           768px;
+$on-laptop:           928px;
+$on-desktop:          1024px;

assets/css/main.scss

@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+---
+---
+
+@charset "utf-8";
+
+@import 
+  "reset",
+  "variables",
+  "mixins",
+  "base",
+  "masthead",
+  "article"
+;

hitchens.gemspec

@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+# frozen_string_literal: true
+
+Gem::Specification.new do |spec|
+  spec.name          = "hitchens"
+  spec.version       = "0.1.0"
+  spec.authors       = ["Pat Dryburgh"]
+  spec.email         = ["hello@patdryburgh.com"]
+
+  spec.summary       = "An arguably beautiful theme for Jekyll."
+  spec.homepage      = "http://patdryburgh.com/hitchens"
+  spec.license       = "MIT"
+
+  spec.files         = `git ls-files -z`.split("\x0").select { |f| f.match(%r!^(assets|_layouts|_includes|_sass|LICENSE|README)!i) }
+
+  spec.add_runtime_dependency "jekyll", "~> 3.8"
+
+  spec.add_development_dependency "bundler", "~> 1.16"
+  spec.add_development_dependency "rake", "~> 12.0"
+end

index.md

@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+---
+title: Home
+layout: home
+---