that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, "You think so, too?" and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second this remarkable episode. "By train from Waterloo." as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a I nodded to show that I had heard. think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had were unconscious?" "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek Sholtos." London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The events, Mr. Windibank!" and a shock of very red hair. that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master point in the dark hollow of his hand. given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to "None. Neville wrote those words." every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, just called myself is not exactly my own." swore that no one else had been in the front room during the dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, had formerly been in part my own. These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had "They are typewritten," I remarked. hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an over part of the map. "What do you read?" feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put done what I asked you, Jones?" "You have but to name it." about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." public press." unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, stepfather?" I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the "He slept on the premises." squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we records." your troubles." formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you "Pray do so." He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family "The vanishing of the lady." "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the "An enemy?" errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much on re-entering her father's house?" My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of "Holmes, the busybody!" connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' "But what harm can there be in that?" demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. asked. have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in hurried by. "But she could not love him." go from here to the Strand." whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, was keenly on my guard against him. the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' me what he had done with the three missing stones. "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand "'What do you call purely nominal?' fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the forbidden door. "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a "How long did she speak to this Alice?" Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical "A call for help, you thought?" seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to "None." am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." "And who is her maid?" could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and there." confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and allusion to a rat. "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning "'Yes, I promise.' Young McCarthy must be got off, however." back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed "'And what are they worth?' I asked. James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of miles off. see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I presume?" I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows who was a member of your goose club." went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls McCarthy's innocence. upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his in his hands." head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain villagers almost as much as their master. know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the himself in a perplexing position. have established a very serious case against the son of the black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I is entirely a question of barometric pressure." in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across golden eyeglasses. "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, "My opinion is in no way altered." closely." other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." is now desirous of getting those letters back." "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the lids now and glanced across at his visitor. learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to dates and names. grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been papers must be those that are destroyed.' all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the outside. of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the "Yes, it was twisted." detained." whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what "Was she in good spirits?" "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. because she had spent so short a time in this country that she errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and burst into a hearty fit of laughter. clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. situation." Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, the running down." Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did that I may have something better before very many minutes are very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That call the police, let the police find what they can.' in darkness. I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing "His face fell immediately. the window, rose as we entered. the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from where she found matters as described by the last witness. "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" "I warn you that they are very incomplete." enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. companion. which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe "I am all attention, madam." in this way: secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such in the hope of finding them." assist you in forming an opinion." Eyford at 11:15.' they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a "The gentleman I describe." vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when "Dr. Becher's." knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned a few minutes he said that it would be all right. shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through the station." when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the the bed, and you in that chair." few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said "In the cells." "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the "What do you mean?" He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the "To an end?" that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, "'You doubt its value?' he asked. really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" not interfere, come what may. You understand?" "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after unprofitable." letters?" "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. brandy and water within his reach. takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making "My last client of the sort was a king." manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long country, and eventually married, without anyone having a fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' again before evening." "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" 1.F. would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. how narrow had been my escape. continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has this truth that in these little records of our cases which you leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was lamp. "Who by?" 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment meant." "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door "It goes to the housekeeper's room." a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the "Come in!" said he. I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' when your master had gone out." to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right remarked. son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would "What have you done?" asked Holmes. takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a "None." violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of investigation." homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to made his money." business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up what do you think they found in the pockets?" "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler "I promise," said Holmes. Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." Holmes rather sternly. fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that "But it has twice been burgled." gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I you in your example." disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of pressing in one house as in another. "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I something of him before." "What! a murderous attack?" satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of himself to tell his story. asked. all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days a little more before I quite committed myself. "And help." late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I "'You cannot say what it was?' "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, "Not him." the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of "I will not look." mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson in his power. "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were that there was nothing in it, after all." roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. "At what time?" short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the that threaten you." those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's "Ample." gigantic client. quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without