son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it nonsense.' before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the "I think it very unlikely." vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no vanished into the darkness. who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very handed it to him. them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite bachelor.' true." upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" outsides of the windows. separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to "Pray tell us what has happened to you." him to go away.' the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my about. employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. shoulder; "he's all right." "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what now. It seems that there had been some informality about their "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a "Certainly." "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited country, and eventually married, without anyone having a "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the writing, and yet I know it well." all?" hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at fishes. "It goes to the housekeeper's room." Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself "None." "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of round and wave him away like that.' yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while "Then you may be so with me." "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly figure." One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of security.' said he, "my real name is James Ryder." "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not be sorry for having acted so harshly." "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of "'I have heard so.' harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon "And now?" He raised his hand. "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my unprofitable." whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging "Nothing." his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against three of the beryls in it, was missing. "Oh, fresh and glossy." "No bad?" "Then, how do you know?" sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her tell him that I know him to be innocent." However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect geese which you supplied to the Alpha." quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, hands were tied in the matter. I went and saw him. At first, of "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his business came to an end." "And for present expenses?" logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in never to learn it at all." "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock "So I have heard." could gather together that I was able to avert another public rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, get her out of the way." save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I one's self under obligations.' have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down envelope. will he say when he returns?" the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming bore every mark of being an average commonplace British To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard "So I am. Very much so." analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must Does that suggest anything?" get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, was lame." Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish "My own seal." there were one or two details which were new to me. But the over part of the map. "What do you read?" conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that I nodded to show that I had heard. moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, read it out to me." other, as fresh and trim as possible. thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a thin, with a long, sharp nose?" upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect becomes even more simple." kindly on the shoulder. the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of and that he would see to anything that turned up. "What shall I do?" out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. over part of the map. "What do you read?" at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a "Yes." "To an English lawyer named Norton." it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side in the dead of the night?' conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more salesman. The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water "How did he come?" All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: again, where I was soon asleep. think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." helping a boy to put up the shutters. drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering "I cannot say that I have." Dr. Gregory B. Newby my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been "'You cannot say what it was?' elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in "'I shall certainly be there.' for securing the situation." foot. "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that "Precisely." will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study unclasping of his long thin hands. excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the "And who is her maid?" "And how have you succeeded?" tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." "I will not look." the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the "What can you not understand?" the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate "No, I am descending." Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a "'What then?' I asked. then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE that he will be back before evening." all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an very old mansion. a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some "Yes." ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the success. with the outside air!" that you wished to speak to me?' his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, open." "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." "By no means." the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret it were putty." o'clock is it?" smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a of his shoulders. broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but my secret was safe in his possession. "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and "I am still in the dark." with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good house for five minutes.' contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this States. Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by sparkled upon his finger. clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more "You have it, sir, just as it happened." deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers "Yes." "They are typewritten," I remarked. and wait." happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the because she had spent so short a time in this country that she shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into "Nothing." keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project works. that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do not use it unless it is absolutely needed." Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." "What can you not understand?" the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, "Witness: It was. town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and distinguish the words: "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the "Look there!" said he. Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found "The doctor?" - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies union?" galvanised. had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been Chief Executive and Director departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the go back?" promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here foot. fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with there when the Rucastles went away." "The gentleman I describe." have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. "And you can do nothing until then?" the Red-headed League." now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the DISSOLVED. as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, showing my impatience. over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the the tragedy. old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter there were one or two details which were new to me. But the address. bare slabs of marble. For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when my friend's incisive reasoning. I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so "May I see it?" "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave Street. "It is a murder, then?" "Not social, then?" routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally "At what time?" "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon "Yes, he did." "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three Clair, of Lee." the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It sufficient punishment." the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he ceremony." the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither in darkness. the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really of this gang." Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we Does that suggest anything?" this as likely?" Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good and laid it on the table. Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case "Why? What do you mean?" Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other some mystery and the punishment of some crime." possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by disappearance of the bride.'" the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect "Entirely." caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened at my own good fortune. it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" side. leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet vanished into the darkness. explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by "Precisely." however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were "It certainly sounds feasible." lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening "'Never,' said I. delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of papers." 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of