"'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a felt the room to be a little close.' putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely future lives." action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and which our visitor detailed to us. "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is "What will you say?" very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. "Then you may be so with me." morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking "It must be recovered." which are rolled in Rotterdam." was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been the bottom.' impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that "You will not go there first?" "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no quick march!" it. tassel actually lying upon the pillow. can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no "Pray do so." "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. I have it here in my museum." be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can the bed, and you in that chair." and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major "What have you done?" asked Holmes. "The Coroner: What do you mean? "But it has twice been burgled." cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any will find little credit to be gained out of this case." "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that became a certainty. "The gentleman I describe." and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal tell him that I know him to be innocent." "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in papers must be those that are destroyed.' Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to tail." "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had outside." "What can you not understand?" I think that I could be of assistance to you." arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the if only as a check to my own memory." like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in murdered man." entirely lost his self-respect." one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the "Married! When?" something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just "It must be recovered." person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest go--none." his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers unclasping of his long thin hands. "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was stalked out of the room. there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." to-night." houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot said he. I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. "Did your wife hear all this?" garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." "Texas, I think." prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start "Was he the only applicant?" With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, go back?" Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another "We have tried and failed." Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told hereditary King of Bohemia." "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the of." there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But acquaintance?" Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between "Then I shall certainly come." which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, carried out of court." this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well Watson," he said cordially. point in the dark hollow of his hand. exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that room had already been engaged for us. make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. there were so many in the whole country as were brought together It was close upon four before the door opened, and a address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the lamp. "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the society." "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about absolutely follow my advice in every respect." again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, disturbance in my wife." speckled band?" Leave Paddington by the 11:15." that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' I think that I could be of assistance to you." south, for the country is more deserted there." his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A of a light. this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman along the entire front of the house, with three long windows conceal it?" to a light-house. cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream "I have seen the police." "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." which I could not give. He asked for Alice. chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, there were one or two details which were new to me. But the Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to I shall continue with my miserable story. some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. the best of training." "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed tell me that you intended to go into harness." as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are been shamefully used." "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I "Awake, Watson?" he asked. Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, national property. I was determined that the law should have its thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see as he folded up the epistle. that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must "She told me to ask you." of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. to affect your life." known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend ago." the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as place no limit on the sum I may draw." quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his with you alone." and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek "It looks newer than the other things?" he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I "I don't believe it." not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more is entirely a question of barometric pressure." utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have meant it for the best. Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. should be taken.' sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe some terrible trap for her." gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but them?" 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a reach." hour." The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I were new raised from a basin. night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall ceremony." roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person "We were both in the photograph." to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to "I fear not." had formerly been in part my own. "Then, how do you know?" He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, know all about it," he snarled. stalked out of the room. fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old vague figure huddled up in the darkness. deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own the Assizes." ourselves in the office." asked. correct than the official force." with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and meant it for the best. carriage. It was a chestnut." large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" go from here to the Strand." remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men "I guessed as much." "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last "Witness: Nothing definite. "I think it very unlikely." then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp bird of prey. the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the "But to whom?" into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who Pope's Court, Fleet Street." Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning companion. mystery may be cleared along those lines." toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." memory. much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come companion quietly. "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard Eyford." As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated details should find their way into the papers. Inspector side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I "And for present expenses?" "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by than was visible to me." that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, have not had my rubber." "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock union?" thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you "Look there!" said he. what is your own theory as to what took place?" a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning point in the dark hollow of his hand. he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open walking." you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the upon the shelf for the interim." "That's no good." cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would investigation." breakfast and whispered something to her husband. veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his "Was your sister dressed?" His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips "I see no marks." "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest questioning and rather startled gaze. as he remarks, very much against the son." her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of London for the present?" "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, photograph a cabinet?" to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which she has been waylaid. There has been no result." This is what he says: at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously place, I think that there is good ground to think that the For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny your bag." "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink "Yes, he did." case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, bears upon the case?" and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must telegram would bring me down to your help." "I will try. What is it?" corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when "Well, but China?" town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo respectable self." your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it "But not more so than I to find you." other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up that you wished to speak to me?' remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been "Yes." I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in "Eh? What was that?" You can understand that this register and diary may implicate "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case the bottom.' from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his "Stolen." lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or and a shock of very red hair. if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. "Of what?" "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the "My dear Holmes!" streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and "Yes, it would be as well." "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book?