are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport had a long day." "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and of note-paper. It read in this fashion: dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the breakfast." obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting "But how did you gain them?" lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her in the dead of the night?' "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and "What will you do, then?" France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to point our research must commence, and we will begin it by drawing your inferences." Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, "I shall be delighted." buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves electronic works "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." companion imperturbably. security.' sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a "No, my brougham is waiting." 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers enter into my head. "It was." "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had "It was an hour's good drive." "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they only touch the interest." well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I You can understand that this register and diary may implicate But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those "The Cedars?" does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There train.' some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and "His face fell immediately. that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be the house with me." "Yes, there are nearly always some there." clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. followed. "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent "I will not look." thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his lost nothing by them." lids now and glanced across at his visitor. fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and "No. His orders were to stay in the house." road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' The summons was a brief and urgent one. "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told "None." letters?" to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It his grey eyes. commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen like gravel from a pit.' "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." "How long did she speak to this Alice?" "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of one which it was hard to resist. so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One keep the flames under. this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." "Here?" that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to You can understand that this register and diary may implicate in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in Lestrade of Scotland Yard." suggested at once that there must be a communication between the "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I records." been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed was once confined in the cab my mission was practically question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that astonishment. Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was I. "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police cigars in the box." "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what "How long did she speak to this Alice?" When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and these bleak autumnal evenings." stood on the top of it. "Not particularly." had formerly been in part my own. there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider "Pray let us have it, for all that." envelope. said he. with you?" were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could all that?" girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to what I may call a really hard day's work." reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the and it need not interfere very much with one's other out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a "Whose house is it?" person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to during which he might have communicated with his friend the been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have "But how could you guess what the motive was?" focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was "None." the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my his forehead." "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the "In San Francisco, a year ago." "Stoke Moran?" said he. 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" have not had my rubber." chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens had this final quarrel? eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman without success. At last the little money which I had saved began "I have solved it." the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. "Upon what point?" things are very often connected not with the larger but with the the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day than was visible to me." hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I infinite languor in his face. pressing in one house as in another. "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. strode off upon his way. that he has suffered." neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her look dissatisfied." Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But been anything against him. He had for years been known as a reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the "It is possible." wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. light and attacked it." of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the Mary, has deserted me." sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and the devil!" "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how you." if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, "Then the page we have seen--" unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my upon the sideboard." excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, "Then, as to money?" "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away "Nothing." threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal you?" what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully "How often?" bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no "'Then let me do so?' one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police Pope's Court. tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they Leave Paddington by the 11:15." face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that "Certainly." he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must she might be summoned. vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or "'It is locked up,' I answered. to Leatherhead. "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of "So I have heard." gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man one of them." extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my the little opening for the ventilator is." may never be exposed to such a temptation." foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his from you?" "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty "The gentleman I describe." scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire "I should like to see him very much." - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies "I cannot think." possible that we could bring him back to her? cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the charged with?" "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which with some details as to your case." "No, finished." How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when locked." "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." past. profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my about. shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a astonishment. "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a "You'll never persuade me to believe that." voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth crime." even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less bell. Holmes whistled. I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest "You horrify me!" round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel in the port of London." was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but to tackle the facts." his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I the coronet at all injured?" "I cannot think." very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. "Pray continue your narrative." successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you tell them apart.' I was concerned in it." Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing papers diligently of late, have you not?" "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you "I warn you that they are very incomplete." Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. prison!" myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only of." "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" "But you have hopes?" lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the "I say it is." "Won't it ring?" twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had "One horse?" interjected Holmes. a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but Holmes' thin, eager face. weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." name is different." the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that with you alone." "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He The King stared at him in amazement. his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to long narrative. do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our woman who has had her own way to make in the world. platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an signal between you and your father? on in his house." every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously "Yes, they were peculiar boots." day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem "Did you become engaged then?" beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, be best to do. "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of through." the Assizes." "A thing like a cleaver," said he. search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general lids now and glanced across at his visitor. "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, "I assure you that I am in your hands." be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have letters?" had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with a few minutes he said that it would be all right. "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in "But what is it you wish?" "Was the window open?" of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just this man was intellectual?" digesting their breakfasts at home." flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by wedding?" doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque sparkled upon his finger. "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think she slowly sank and died without having recovered her inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed that I may have something better before very many minutes are then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. investigation." planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. call for it in person on Monday morning.' burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I 1.F. the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he in a very precise fashion." applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but drove away. "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He clang of the bell. troubles have been weighing upon his mind. "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This