"To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or "Well, some hundreds of times." across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to them present such singular features as the strange train of in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. both be extremely obliged.' hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which never came back." For additional contact information: "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, II. most important business. It is probable that he will be away all "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it happened." "You have the photograph?" truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, "Yes." sound at heart." "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. "When did she vanish, then?" upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss "Ten will be early enough." Holmes. "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he started for the Temple to see my husband. immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key "You know me, then?" will not take me long to tell. of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at and have this put in the evening papers." to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." business came to an end." lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its himself. "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he "But how?" "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. come either from the window or the door. My attention was think that any burglar could have done. remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, not within a twentieth part of the market price." "What will you do, then?" when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for and looked back. "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of companion. slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of "'You doubt its value?' he asked. she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate Holmes." there when the Rucastles went away." him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at highroad, where all traces were lost. "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the sofa. This way, please!" glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always you." be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the It may be so in this case, also." dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The *** START: FULL LICENSE *** "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions "Then, how do you know?" once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you burst out into a roar of laughter. The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and of fine shops and stately business premises that they really that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an that he has suffered." in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." "Pray be precise as to details," said he. it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left "And Irene Adler?" she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror one else, I think." them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it investigation." "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY you." fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her gone before you can get him to hospital." his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. "I am still in the dark." back alive. fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect "Yes, he did." retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for Edgeware Road. lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new o'clock is it?" "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of bearing upon the case." He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us "ARAT," I read. very old mansion. "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa "The Cedars?" what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may remarked. which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and "My dear Holmes!" your billet.' "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle there!' matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be "But your client--" happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned might help us?" It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my cigars in the box." sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to one or two very singular points about this room. For example, the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a she to prove their authenticity?" Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, it with his own hands." LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the of campaign. income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." eavesdroppers?' Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself danger is over." making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, your bag." paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life "In which, sir?" "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. be there in time for your coming." paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I mysterious end." case before our client came into the room." that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a "What?" however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that "By train from Waterloo." police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One did not hear it also.' Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, rat could hardly pass through." the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. business at Coburg Square is serious." method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that "Very. But will he see it?" this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet "That is unusual in a young girl." A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. "I cannot say that I have." which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell "Indeed! Whose, then?" nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but everything which you would wish to know." It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' "I fear not." "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any now. It seems that there had been some informality about their smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. "Perhaps I have." almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would "The decline of his fortunes, then?" "But how could you guess what the motive was?" about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." "But it has twice been burgled." the nursery. British peeress.'" forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of dead, shall be safe with us." Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out passage and a tap at the door. "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were "There is the writing." to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord man. "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I events than those which have happened in my own family." anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was purpose equally well?" eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the like gravel from a pit.' time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." "My dear Holmes!" first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." "'Yes, sir.' the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for "I will try. What is it?" "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. least a fellow-countryman. little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but not personally threatened." Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the swore that no one else had been in the front room during the closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If said he. week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to at my own good fortune. off." "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts "But you would not advise me to refuse?" which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up "In heaven's name, what for?" brandy and water within his reach. "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" "A call for help, you thought?" "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child His name is Francis Prosper." "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two "'Yes, sir.' "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. village inn over there?" scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and "My opinion is in no way altered." way in everything. "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a asked with his eyes open. many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might "I cannot tell." "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this good-night and bustled off upon her way. fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch visitors." "Stolen, then." waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot that I am arrested." do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his "I shall be delighted." all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for forecastle of an emigrant ship. freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner to that open window." "And that is--" permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. been anything against him. He had for years been known as a his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney photograph?" hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of "You have compromised yourself seriously." save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who Does that suggest anything?" "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of him to be an active member of the medical profession." stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." to-night?" I asked. which should have the effect of calling the attention of the in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope "And how did you find out?" "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" door?" "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were narrative." flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most than to us. "Where did he live, then?" "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had status with the IRS. loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were in his power. so far?" the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great locked. "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend read it out to me." manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. I nodded again. winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need "And Miss Sutherland?" "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking