helping a boy to put up the shutters. ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I seen the man in the road." to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a "In San Francisco, a year ago." that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we since then to throw any light upon what became of him." every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need "No, but the enclosure is." his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." "At the wedding breakfast." from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is "Deserted you?" the King without delay." threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw be best to do. return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and "She told me to ask you." isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet very morning of my second wedding." and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When to change my dress. lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I arms and began to sob in a high treble key. "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper emerged. "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the "What, then?" continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off singular points about the case. What did the police think of the child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR the loss of it. Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the one or two very singular points about this room. For example, the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK think you a quite exceptional woman." his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an Sutherland. disturbance in my wife." the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the front of me. The telegram which we eventually received came late one night which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he "'Yes, sir.' roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the memory. Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he "What can you not understand?" sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke friend's singular character. stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can respectable self." Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with presume?" fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 business matters.' remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." a monotonous occupation." A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew "No, I think that I'll take it." walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I floor. could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." as he remarks, very much against the son." week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner room?" what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of "Where to?" Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, "I think that it is very probable." the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted "Nothing." chance." "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the Holmes." I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his vague figure huddled up in the darkness. "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, "'Ample.' Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to in this way: where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he "Pray be precise as to details," said he. "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn "No, distinctly professional." the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his "Well." "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" ventilator." than was visible to me." but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' night.' said he. transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project interested in these little problems, and since you are good also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is "Yes." shag which I had seen upon the previous night. read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." test if we have an answer to our advertisement." more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about not interfere, come what may. You understand?" in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of strong reason behind." family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who the so-precious time, but come!' sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is what I may call a really hard day's work." it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his Surrey." "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A "Come in!" said Holmes. "Entirely." "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our "But you were on a friendly footing?" classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in instituted." this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be girl said." time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would States. donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the I shall communicate with you." Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband several quiet little villages up there." matters immensely." was not a bird to be seen there. this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the congratulate you again." at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey "One of the highest in England." "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly me. You must get home instantly and act." experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that had this final quarrel? long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. "And how have you succeeded?" Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining served to weaken the effect. some mystery and the punishment of some crime." It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the "Where, then?" "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they the Assizes." had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to forbidden door. congenial hunt. fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight death." "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. your equipment. "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our evidence," I remarked. Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was there were so many in the whole country as were brought together The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we individual and becomes the badge of a society." throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as for securing the situation." "No. What a strange idea!" village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with and wait." a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was memory. was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after 11:15.' that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His "My own seal." few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further "'What would be the hours?' I asked. humiliation." myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very DISSOLVED. certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite client, rising. named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. strode off upon his way. "Which are?" better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he strode off upon his way. relation between them, and what the object of his repeated places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a joking. The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." which I could not give. He asked for Alice. and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! in this way: The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden "Yes, it was twisted." mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who Have you good authority for what you say?" ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, Leadenhall Street--and--" "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we "Then I am your man." "It is possible." as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one the driver. that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and "How did you trace it, then?" lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of "Never." singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look you understand?" copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon on re-entering her father's house?" and a shock of very red hair. girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of of the vacancies.' sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the desk. who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in "A greater distance to travel." I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a recover the gem." "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I you understand?" He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was things are very often connected not with the larger but with the you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming see a sister of mine apply for." into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some "Stoke Moran?" said he. "That is unusual in a young girl." Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." did not hear it also.' Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, "Certainly." head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your lamp in his hand. simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. writer." absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, like gravel from a pit.' that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess has little to do with my story." "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your possible that we could bring him back to her? opened the door, and slipped through. against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so in the port of London." "I saw her in conversation with her maid." Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" ready to-morrow?' them?" about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant even of instruction." I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." hurried away. Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible and capable of preserving a secret.' "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" you." amused." "Yes, but only for you and me." The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet most important business. It is probable that he will be away all "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in with you alone." the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper "And when will you call?" back alive. to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you lectures into a series of tales." the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. "My own seal." the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little "No. What a strange idea!" end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, swore that no one else had been in the front room during the "The rest you will leave in our hands." something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a down from London to inquire more deeply into it." "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite him to go away.' bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and what I may call a really hard day's work." greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so God! What an exposure! What can I do?" some terrible trap for her." "'And the work?' depend upon my doing so.' civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you money should be paid at once.' "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" front of me. his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was "So I heard. You have him here?" garden below. in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more with her." but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am things are very often connected not with the larger but with the bore every mark of being an average commonplace British snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she