for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the have got?" the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my and the colonel ushered me in. Project Gutenberg-tm works. he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." "My photograph." and files of the old papers, following the future career of every bearing upon the case." very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled that I can to serve you." my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his was the fact that his father should, according to his account, eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began be sorry for having acted so harshly." Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." "None." "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he the stable lane now." "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly of Mr. Rucastle's." from the brougham. it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; "This photograph!" vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly "But he might be a bachelor." was once confined in the cab my mission was practically "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and mysterious end." "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony The King stared at him in amazement. tension within him. way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that relation between them, and what the object of his repeated dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was room?" "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have "I don't say that. Perhaps." me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching said I. some terrible trap for her." severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk "What shall I do?" thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his the nursery. DAMAGE. "What! a murderous attack?" A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and "Nothing." highroad, where all traces were lost. "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest away to you." "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a events, Mr. Windibank!" you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning answered with a sidelong glance. value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his you do it in twenty minutes!' waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another sufficient punishment." "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, II. "It is possible." such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door upon an income of about 60 pounds." XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, he bowed and left the room without another word. stood on the top of it. arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven leave you to your papers for a little." "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite Watson," he said cordially. point our research must commence, and we will begin it by have not had my rubber." "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, "I should like to see him very much." from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend "The Coroner: What do you mean? "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have "'Yes, sir.' never came back." "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a again on its way. said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may "It is no ordinary one." other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to "Were they all fastened this morning?" before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place "No, my brougham is waiting." serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. "I cannot tell." central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of stood on the top of it. "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, as this. Pray let me have the details." her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the think, you have already met." "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will think, you have already met." but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real "Murdered?" keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. "Not yet." my room." advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm "'I shall certainly be there.' down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the yards of it?' like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. "'How far from the body?' chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, "My dear Holmes!" glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There depend upon my doing so.' hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a invisible to me," I remarked. "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony sparkled upon his finger. remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are delighted to hear it," he said. observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded good for you to do.' prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the were unconscious?" PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your with some details as to your case." ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to putting in the horse. "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do when your master had gone out." and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that "By no means." not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible upon the sideboard." neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing of Mr. Rucastle's." tied." drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying "I will try. What is it?" in the dead of the night?' brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and posted to-day." from you?" time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a http://gutenberg.net/license). to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which to have that photograph." particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had obstinate." "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there Holmes' face clouded over. building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny stammered. would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your "And help." feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads "One horse?" interjected Holmes. mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I your room." bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed is so. I know all about McCarthy." "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this I nodded again. should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." manager. nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." "But how will you look?" "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was allusion to a rat. "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is once more for Briony Lodge. "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two head. So long, then!" happened." As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have "Yes, the wine-cellar." "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter salesman. "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark "Whose house is it?" "He might." something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my what is your own theory as to what took place?" of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum of the one which your family is now devouring." "Did you observe the colour?" "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached husband's writing, madam." wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he quite distinctive." helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It said he. "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his and a shock of very red hair. "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found emerged. wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary "Very well, sir. And this stone?" He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and "10th. John Swain cleared. "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and quite distinctive." of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. "Where did you address your letters, then?" "Just look it up, then." once more to my work. against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony "Dr. Becher's." paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in had no one to advise her at such a crisis." reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you "How did you deduce the select?" "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! better grown goose." shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few been lifted and conveyed somewhere." be best to do. hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which London for the present?" was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in to take care of herself." works. See paragraph 1.E below. "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back "What will you do, then?" garden below. "Perfectly so." broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of Arthur Conan Doyle who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without eavesdroppers?' "I will try. What is it?" "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am the nursery. homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. "Nothing." was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us "And leave your case unfinished?" to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he "Can I be of assistance?" at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." Does that suggest anything?" "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly *** START: FULL LICENSE *** brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise as the one I chose?' mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a "You will not go there first?" does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his I was concerned in it." road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to "I never have." front of the hall door has given its name to the place. wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon