danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town fatally injured? typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the "But who is he?" upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is "It is very clear." week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away official police." "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy and your relations to her." Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the back to my heart. direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as about here speaks of his kindness to him." summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white "What! You do not mean bodies?" both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the bedroom door." "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year "'And what salary do you ask?' twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. see a sister of mine apply for." and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain "It came here." your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our someone who had been in Australia." expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, morning." of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate "I will not look." if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where companion. find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. that statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than the running down." not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the I. is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away and looked back. "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, dear old homesteads?" reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' room. we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your evidence," I remarked. King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her questioning and rather startled gaze. results." He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was "Not in a good cause." his grey eyes. has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he in a friendly supper." "It missed him, then?" was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. License. You must require such a user to return or fire. You quite follow me?" my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely I nodded to show that I had heard. had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he "It came here." word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these business in the City. She little knew what. "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then ran thus: "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been security.' destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in than to us. "I would give my fortune to have them back." Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been "You have but to name it." platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a works. "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of "Ample." ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side "It is to him that this trophy belongs." "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable bears upon the case?" of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. that he will be back before evening." the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the you." mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the "In what way?" asked Holmes. "You have the photograph?" flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all American. Then who could this American be, and why should he "A greater distance to travel." double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at "What do you make of that, Watson?" "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing touch that coronet?' even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said nonsense.' "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" "'You cannot say what it was?' wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists "'Oh, no.' in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to "May I see it?" maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the "Well, it is a possible supposition." strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the his face which made him a very different person to the round, and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts breakfast?" of fine shops and stately business premises that they really fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any drawing your inferences." handed it to him. mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This and that he would see to anything that turned up. "Very well, sir. And this stone?" hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other characteristics, but those are the more obvious." Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite whether it answered to the description of any of their conduct the inquiry." wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them Where does the thing come from?' desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of "By no means." a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which James Windibank. Voilà tout!" "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter "Absolutely?" "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, once more for Briony Lodge. shaken than I had ever seen him. out of this horrible affair." attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It thirty. "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My "'And the work?' which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old vanished into the darkness. of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. three fields round his house, and there he would take his until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, humiliation." "What steps will you take?" I asked. reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' sentimental considerations in the background which would induce past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. "I have come for advice." idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's row." a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had arrangements." better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would "And I to find an enemy." "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he said he. "And how did you verify them?" am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your might have a private word with us. Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and him, that man would not have given me such complete information is now desirous of getting those letters back." "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. reach." ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to works. See paragraph 1.E below. "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a "What I expected to see." "Here?" "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I "Bought." said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of directors have had misgivings upon the subject." woman." has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met "No, my brougham is waiting." Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying back into the street. "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for the so-precious time, but come!' flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and them, and came down just as you departed. It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and Mary, has deserted me." "Frequently." "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the never will be, entirely cleared up. there when the Rucastles went away." The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some "Well, it is a possible supposition." not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and "I cannot as yet see any connection." presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford to-night?" I asked. the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, to take care of herself." authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." "Entirely." "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I himself to tell his story. imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed already been minutely examined." society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I "Pray do so." furiously. even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so it were putty." "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to without a word or a look. And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say "Yes." "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. tightly behind him. hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. "I do." "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a "Very murderous indeed." the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of "Yes, that is the Crown." "Where, then, is my wife?" lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue his fortune, and I went back to pa. "Witness: I must still refuse. He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the deduce something from that?" the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he congratulate you again." "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the "It is a murder, then?" way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely night.' said he. "You will not go there first?" union?" 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. spare." Street. about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." ventilator." cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can shadow pass over his face as I spoke. "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly very old mansion. envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's if only as a check to my own memory." baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and astonishment. "'As governess?' ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice you in your example." "What then?" The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. arrangements." "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which Leadenhall Street--and--" "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where the general public were present, then?" Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per my friend's incisive reasoning. Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came prove to be little relation between the different incidents of The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a "One?" room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." minor matters until to-morrow." In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear "'What, the red-headed man?' friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I me what he had done with the three missing stones.