education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond "Now, then, what's the last entry?" long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles most important business. It is probable that he will be away all was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer was feeling which was the fattest.' direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint good for you to do.' before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? definite end. written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were strength." your equipment. called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, presented more singular features than that which was associated "What will you do, then?" qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the Dr. Gregory B. Newby direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, without success. At last the little money which I had saved began Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing depend upon your compliance." "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's experiences." which are rolled in Rotterdam." note?" What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and "No, distinctly professional." make me his representative both with the servants and with the "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My since then to throw any light upon what became of him." "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no to tell." "In what way?" asked Holmes. "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at go back?" paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is your bag." go back?" Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the is entirely a question of barometric pressure." "I fear not." it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. "Yes." as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of his knees, staring into the fire. I shall continue with my miserable story. before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. useful material for showing traces. The double line a little the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If "The Cedars?" I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an the south-west, I see." be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the money should be paid at once.' an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, and laid it on the table. it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened "The murder was done with it." "My dear Holmes!" "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire "I should like to see him very much." "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have "No." must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon *** START: FULL LICENSE *** by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what the salesman. one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over "I am to be neutral?" play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no highroad, where all traces were lost. first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. Street. furiously. work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried "Well, but China?" carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage papers must be those that are destroyed.' drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I "Which surely he restored to their owner?" more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice his wife has ceased to love him." time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried "On your arm?" the date of his supposed suicide." do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly that you can jump it.' Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is "Not in the least." suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" "The gentleman I describe." "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a "'Is 4 pounds a week.' the devil!" "Then you may be so with me." may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more "Ten will be early enough." reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east lost nothing by them." outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my Holmes." Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, read over the extraordinary announcement. with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a politicians who had been sent down from the North. crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point washing it down with a long draught of water. "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." "Of what day?" the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he comes from the middle window." refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see "Perhaps we may make them less so." think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps "Seven!" I answered. seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 business matters.' "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me bled considerably." tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the of Fenchurch Street." The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' seem to you to be relevant or not." the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which is four-and-twenty." society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with you do it in twenty minutes!' bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' went to the Alpha were town bred." exactly what you advise." and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt union?" believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his client, rising. "Then the page we have seen--" Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in think that any burglar could have done. in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked it. and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" "'Which dealer's?' and prosperity to your house. Good-night." "10th. John Swain cleared. "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he present." he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but her also." what I may call a really hard day's work." "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, "Certainly." four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. "He is still with you, I presume?" electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon the date of his supposed suicide." across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four "None." His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between past. inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He "But who is he?" Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been "I fear not." "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press your only hope of safety." done what I asked you, Jones?" in this way: Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were the Friday. Was it to be in church?" "But not more so than I to find you." "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an against a man in the prime of life?" "Did your wife hear all this?" and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four married her." "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock have established a very serious case against the son of the all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and dates and names. "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar "And Miss Sutherland?" "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a to Leatherhead. it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of the coroner come to?" "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." with her." chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at upon the white wrist. It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he the station." and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few remarked. them?" little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, himself to tell his story. "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the "Stolen, then." the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' cigar and let me expound." smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. vault. "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." "Stoke Moran?" said he. pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the one of the states of the Union." settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." whereabouts. "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to have one." "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the girl said." alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and your troubles." "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his hardly wander." "But his lameness?" Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major developed." an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: do you make of it all?" "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming This is what he says: "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we in this note: there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly will he say when he returns?" "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in "Not in a good cause." Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and "Where, then, is my wife?" Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right "Ah, but I was recommended to you." last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall deduce something from that?" closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few was a lad." that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I noise which awoke you from your sleep?" result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of "Not particularly." "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I "I think it very unlikely." to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the "Have you it here?" The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said "Who by?" daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for "It is no ordinary one." Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a this as likely?" were unconscious?" by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with your bag." "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that "Why did you pick him?" were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so money should be paid at once.' cigars in the box." rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a three of the beryls in it, was missing. believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he