who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a nonsense.' the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when you." doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." presented more singular features than that which was associated statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There "I have a cab outside." from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, three fields round his house, and there he would take his be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in "I was sure that I might rely on you." of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. him nearly every evening." grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back next day. came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how his wife has ceased to love him." of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and wife's character?" "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that again before evening." depend upon your compliance." maid will bring up your coffee." Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." "Look there!" said he. that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to lumber-room." others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the My friend smiled. "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." there when the Rucastles went away." side. arrangements." See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, went to the Alpha were town bred." "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." "Frequently." "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money "To an English lawyer named Norton." to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a as the one I chose?' years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable "Can I be of assistance?" feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" been deceived." pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." to-night?' too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each "I cannot say that I have." which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, used to be." tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this new duties?' with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who "It came here." "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a "What of the rat, then?" poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" "The decline of his fortunes, then?" nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a The summons was a brief and urgent one. one of the states of the Union." gigantic client. "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's cause to be." time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the "Yes, they were peculiar boots." say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's in your London, you will know that the office of the company is gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But completely overtopped every other consideration that we both my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. certainly do as you advise." fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and "The Coroner: What do you mean? "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy "Can I be of assistance?" father's place of business?" Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds new duties?' "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' for the market.' not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our "My own seal." c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen characteristics, but those are the more obvious." Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an threw himself down with his face to the pillow. laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and business?" Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case been deceived." Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his "But she could not love him." "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and I think that I could be of assistance to you." glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow "Won't it ring?" see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I friend's singular character. suspect him." "Two days later this same performance was gone through under "But he might be a bachelor." explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have there when the Rucastles went away." "Why, what do you mean?" grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted up this clue while it is still hot." streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would "It came here." "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was next day. I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly "Tired-looking or fresh?" Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while business matters.' the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the "The knees of his trousers." put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms letters?" would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little some city in a dream. and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his "I will do it." it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and present strange and interesting features that it is no easy felt the room to be a little close.' all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, "What is it, then--a fire?" "My opinion is in no way altered." "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the "No sign of it?" you in your example." interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one fatally injured? Foundation was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily politicians who had been sent down from the North. said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose all-comprehensive glances. drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the letters?" pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she his face which made him a very different person to the round, believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" "I cannot as yet see any connection." where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To "He slept on the premises." "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens there." concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me clang of the bell. lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming in a very precise fashion." possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" But Holmes shook his head gravely. really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE "'And what are they worth?' I asked. "Holmes, the busybody!" comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his "And how have you succeeded?" "You are all wrong." tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his along the entire front of the house, with three long windows to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar to tackle the facts." ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide may never be exposed to such a temptation." "No, finished." all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no "But she could not love him." "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid Pope's Court. arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two to his chemical studies. "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, row." you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the which we had just quitted. were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a gigantic client. submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, "How did you deduce the select?" purpose equally well?" would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." that I may have something better before very many minutes are belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and words came to my lips. looking up at the numbers of the houses." presume?" that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the been lifted and conveyed somewhere." heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses that he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or "Whose house is it?" these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, disappearance of these gems?" "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your "On Monday." He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush promised to bring home. James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." made him keep the appointment." "Do you go out much in society?" "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are "'Certainly not.' which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and so.' will take you up to see the machine.' the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, grasp, he hurried from the room. what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, "But how did you gain them?" that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to "Yes, he did." the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. present." the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." little adventures." Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his "And now?" He raised his hand. "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. a suggestive one." "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not had no one to advise her at such a crisis." in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to "Yes, from Horsham." into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to "The Cedars?" upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by "And on what day did he meet his death?" for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock "You know me, then?" wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I