"And where is it?" I asked, smiling. One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a wife's character?" by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." next day. real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. indeed which he could not unravel. is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her go--none." criminal. We have already had experience of such." believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl the Red-headed League." "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm of this gang." I. with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the grasp, he hurried from the room. "What will you say?" have I gained?" in his power. glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room whatever might befall. a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had dramatic, in fact." follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. the house with me." Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to "Yes. He waved his hands." salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with me where it went to?" come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a Watson," he said cordially. next day. and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled lumber-room." precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for man. enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' entirely lost his self-respect." actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. through." but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from and prosperity to your house. Good-night." think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose giving me time to thank him. he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His "I have my revolver," said I. back into the street. the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey will find little credit to be gained out of this case." beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to "Nothing." his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, straightened it out again. to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. grasp, he hurried from the room. pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house charge against him will break down." the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be "Yes." away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had eat it." "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in tear off another piece?' "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no was a loud and authoritative tap. had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. appointment with me for six o'clock?" address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, and shall probably return to London by the evening train." as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work "Where did you address your letters, then?" precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it "I was afraid that you were engaged." "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." highroad, where all traces were lost. "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" help us in this matter." it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and "'I have already given you my word.' it." compunction about shooting them down." question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after "'What do you call purely nominal?' make me his representative both with the servants and with the "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case you in your example." whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His brought there to personate someone, and the real person is "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it "By no means." abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, eavesdroppers?' "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow answer." Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. she used." To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' opened a pocket-book and took out a note. "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He "Not I." "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" is entirely a question of barometric pressure." was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that unkempt, staring out at me. "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. noting anything else of interest. "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have distance from the station, and there we found the young lady frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman when your master had gone out." morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is that the gas is not laid on in his house?" have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was details." with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. foresight and the moral retrogression?" before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." taking in every detail of the apartment. he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few "Will you go?" "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug back alive. subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, that he will be back before evening." over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" all-comprehensive glances. country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it "I never have." It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, means taking possession of that which another person has a prior "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little "Was he the only applicant?" Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the than to us. "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he bachelor.' come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by "Why did you beat the pavement?" "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." together. answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads better grown goose." electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the depend upon my doing so.' would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His in this way: "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the case-book, which he consulted. "Will you go?" "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ "Was the window open?" assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a friends, not even his own brother. handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, "To the police?" make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found your bag." For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" to surprise her." since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are Where does the thing come from?' They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could coat-tails." corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my grasp, he hurried from the room. Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of more solid." desk. his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the arms and began to sob in a high treble key. in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their should be so warm over such a trifle." "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind and all of them with the keenest interest. room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the of them has the shutters up.' wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the article?" "You have carte blanche." "And now?" I asked. front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of legal crime." squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that "You horrify me." revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a "The Coroner: What do you mean? was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a "Thank you. And your address?" caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice works. suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which time." master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported "Why serious?" through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the "And is that all?" without success. At last the little money which I had saved began while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. "Then I can wait in the next room." with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double only touch the interest." back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. present." the matter." reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the "That you are never beaten." question," said Holmes, smiling. present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it conversation I have gathered that they have been married about "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, chance at all." The King stared at him in amazement. Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the Farm upon the left." heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any "You saw the ventilator, too?" was feeling which was the fattest.' and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed absorbing." presume?" direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the bare slabs of marble. anything to do with the matter?" are, and they are waiting for us." companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first "But I am all in the dark." round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the pound a week." "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and "Stolen, then." "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so "And now?" I asked. among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. and I shall be with you presently." that I leave." wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, The note was undated, and without either signature or address. against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such cigars in the box." "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. which are rolled in Rotterdam." "Perfectly so." pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and "Here?" We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by "Was she in good spirits?" was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the been shamefully used." cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave "Yes." said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money