object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," correct than the official force." away in different directions, and I went off to make my own with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," over his head with a sweet womanly caress. the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet of campaign. "And the murderer?" room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, in this way: rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the wife's character?" "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and hands. "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which thin, with a long, sharp nose?" a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his guilty one." abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me must be when I saw the door open.' not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for indiscretion." "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should "And what then?" with her." "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are "My own seal." "That was it, sir." rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, "He said that you could solve anything." will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless little adventures." facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. points to suicide?" is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have the so-precious time, but come!' my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was "Why did you beat the pavement?" "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but in a very precise fashion." Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" "'Certainly,' I answered. he died? "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as such attractions and accomplishments?' roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and clanging. "It is possible." cigars in their mouths. which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I train.' year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this "That also I could fathom." the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer points to suicide?" impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive your room." "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, lips." What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly washing it down with a long draught of water. acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it "And that is--" got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" business." took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered Lee, in the county of Kent." wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. "In which, sir?" the room while you explain this matter?" "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if "Will you go?" darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot there were so many in the whole country as were brought together nothing with him." everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter is entirely a question of barometric pressure." in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." his wife has ceased to love him." memory. up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband forehead. people in all walks of life. yourselves in at night?" appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which "You have carte blanche." habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for "'Certainly,' I answered. Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. "At half-wages, in fact." "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us "And why?" good for you to do.' I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the "Won't it ring?" The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have Does that suggest anything?" stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small singular points about the case. What did the police think of the out." Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." fat-encircled eyes. likely to be some crony of the landlady's." observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are be. "And that is--" There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to she slowly sank and died without having recovered her We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more "He slept on the premises." judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love not fit the lock." from you?" which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we "Holmes, the busybody!" only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away is," said he presently: better grown goose." the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about "You have compromised yourself seriously." house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long observed. lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in threw himself down with his face to the pillow. happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I awaited us upon the table. fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon chambers. that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good silent! Oh, he will be silent!' middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband "Pray do so." 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of "Whose house is it?" know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some him. "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, the south-west, I see." Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain copied or distributed: hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in promised to bring home. wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, "Perfectly so." "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and "But you can know nothing of this?" charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. mysterious business." which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." "Oh, the cause is excellent!" clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took "I am sure." borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as was it brought him the coronet? she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible "It is true that I have been generally successful." branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." Doctor, of the paper and the date." there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging that, and I came down." Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." locked." "This photograph!" is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. outside. way in everything. like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the new duties?' Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the "The decline of his fortunes, then?" one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have "That's no good." characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss "What do you mean?" returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the within hail.' paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little enter Dr. Roylott's room." "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe For additional contact information: pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, "There is the writing." "I have my revolver," said I. "'You doubt its value?' he asked. "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they something of him before." quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a "To an English lawyer named Norton." second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My his forehead." her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week for its centre. sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, said I. way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many was a perfect sample of the class. leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through been anything against him. He had for years been known as a week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by easy-going way." human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate your bag." another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this face and glided from the room. the devil!" these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his make me his representative both with the servants and with the "Your sister is dead, then?" disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding ran thus: smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or seen the man in the road." filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally tear off another piece?' "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have bonnet, and went out." He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that "I should be immensely obliged to you." "Was the window open?" St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of "No." not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was papers must be those that are destroyed.' again." squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and down in his armchair and closing his eyes. the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me and files of the old papers, following the future career of every Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. down. or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was is four-and-twenty." "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must II. "Yes." building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No along the entire front of the house, with three long windows the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him to take care of herself." to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," of fine shops and stately business premises that they really encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, that, and I came down." recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, "He slept on the premises." agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot Henry Baker is a member." other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are "Come in!" said Holmes. the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always there." walking." money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one persecution?" "I guessed as much." "And you thought he was pulled back?" can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to not use it unless it is absolutely needed." I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner "You are certainly joking, Holmes." "Why, what do you mean?" his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my "'I have already given you my word.' out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of seen the man in the road." that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been the iron safe, which he closed upon it. thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" prepare for the new role I have to play." her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to "Entirely." equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a "Then you may entirely rely on me." three fields round his house, and there he would take his once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic nonsense.' Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out "Pray do so." "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out