St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at to miss it." long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, recall any case within my experience which looked at the first a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I this unhappy family?" "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better prepare for the new role I have to play." air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit hand, madam?" am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at "Seven!" I answered. and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me lips." flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might never will be, entirely cleared up. had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for relation between them, and what the object of his repeated side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the tied." Pope's Court, Fleet Street." St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the next day. herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to "Get out!" said he. a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you been deceived." year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One "That also I could fathom." gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, down from London to inquire more deeply into it." located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. him!" flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad Holmes rather sternly. which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" with you?" "I say it is." incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as the morning and make my own way in the world.' "Nor running a chance of arrest?" did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss "Then I am your man." "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been and have this put in the evening papers." given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was "'It is locked up,' I answered. peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, "It came here." "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the done what I asked you, Jones?" "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this "Yes, only one." "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you Pool. father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted "So I am. Very much so." Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into fish-monger and a tide-waiter." upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep "Because he was handy and would come cheap." his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about placed his cuttings. "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was I shall communicate with you." season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently once more on the important position which you have been fortunate shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of hard-headed British jury." said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had "And for present expenses?" statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've himself to hunt down. woman who has had her own way to make in the world. "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She with the outside air!" Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, "Get out!" said he. the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll in this way: secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and "Where did he live, then?" "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of Pope's Court, Fleet Street." "No, thank goodness, she did not." her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The prove to be little relation between the different incidents of she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an "What are they?" "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and speckled band?" Foundation do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large beyond words. whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." there is a decided draught." Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his Edgeware Road. it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it "But what will you do?" Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little had a long day." In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." never to learn it at all." this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any when your master had gone out." should be taken.' Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I "Nothing?" it." If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business very peculiar words of the dying woman?" sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 in darkness. My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord and glanced through. instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an "I am following you closely," I answered. then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as I took the paper from him and read as follows: putting in the horse. He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much What do you deduce from it?" "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for strength in the others." man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." extraordinary contortions. Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out "But how will you look?" "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a away to you." back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her "Why, what do you mean?" hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against "I fear not." that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to legal crime." "Stolen, then." test if we have an answer to our advertisement." lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced "Yes, I have one waiting." works. seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had strength in the others." dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say "Well." side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the enough to aid us in our search." particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little "BALLARAT." however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared "He disappeared so suddenly." really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it to have that photograph." Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in eat it." at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, name is different." remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a breakfast." got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through go from here to the Strand." comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would a little more before I quite committed myself. "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, me, and I could not think that his explanation of the "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks train from Paddington which would bring you there at about His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. purpose equally well?" "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to depend upon your compliance." returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." yards of it?' This is what he says: run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten rat could hardly pass through." comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, "You did not overhear what they said?" cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his is so. I know all about McCarthy." might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing see me here to avoid scandal." "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and "I should be immensely obliged to you." in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey "Yes, sir." society." "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the "A greater distance to travel." "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. their singular warning or token before them when starting upon brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the noise which awoke you from your sleep?" His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before to you." "Pray be precise as to details," said he. you." "What is it?" our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress once more to my work. "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your is four-and-twenty." "That is not always so easy." violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" could gather together that I was able to avert another public smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else "They are typewritten," I remarked. "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could jewels which you have stolen?' the coroner come to?" hair?' been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, "'What do you call purely nominal?' crime. commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." the warnings." like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it stood on the top of it. town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, asked with his eyes open. "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had "Witness: I must still refuse. years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either "The knees of his trousers." have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered "At half-wages, in fact." business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the for and were ordered to this address. "How long did she speak to this Alice?" "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside "I am about to be married." dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was "How did he come?" "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to "Was she in good spirits?" incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was "That is easily got." flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed discontent upon his features. "No, I am descending." "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am bonnet, and went out." had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is "You did not overhear what they said?" I took the paper from him and read as follows: coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to "Certainly." and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a "But she will refuse." "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. "I think that I had better go, Holmes." I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had less than 26s. 4d. that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of "It was a confession," I ejaculated. vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has "It certainly sounds feasible." round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then like gravel from a pit.' in your London, you will know that the office of the company is very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the colour had been driven from his face. Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let returned to France?" winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and "'Why that?' I asks. insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was future lives." "But his lameness?"