http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of "But it has twice been burgled." of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," during which he might have communicated with his friend the to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, call you and give you the chance." I shall continue with my miserable story. neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the formed some opinion?" he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are useful material for showing traces. The double line a little quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' "Where to?" admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most "What will you do, then?" have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out strong and stiff." knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a "'A dozen yards or so.' "ARAT," I read. the nursery. Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: "That's no good." perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally "Well, but China?" has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth During two years I have had three consultations and one small "What! You do not mean bodies?" "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to your most interesting statement." not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining "'A dozen yards or so.' "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE "Well, some hundreds of times." next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all felt the room to be a little close.' opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a in the dead of the night?' have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring "Is he quiet?" red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way "And why in hopes?" sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold in him." bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and "Holmes, the busybody!" was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic "Yes." "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a "I answered that I had not. "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend legal crime." Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and upon the sideboard." small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side later, upon the night of May 2nd." "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in "No." once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and colour had been driven from his face. certainly do as you advise." "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the here." crime. what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and opened the door, and slipped through. agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her him." were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert young Openshaw's." his grey eyes. place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to My friend smiled. which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come overpowering excitement and concern. and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful touch that coronet?' this as likely?" showing my impatience. Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was without a word or a look. anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck said I. "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common examination of the premises, but without finding anything which "I say it is." they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the "And from a noble client?" down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door "I have my revolver," said I. to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." wedding?" noise which awoke you from your sleep?" the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." to-night's adventure." last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering events, Mr. Windibank!" matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" "One?" keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, there." would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to pressing in one house as in another. my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat following enigmatical notices: with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the "I saw her in conversation with her maid." "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as trifles." could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. tassel actually lying upon the pillow. enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and them, and came down just as you departed. was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of cigar and let me expound." the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the night.' said he. foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always been lifted and conveyed somewhere." in. The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is a few minutes he said that it would be all right. "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that "Dark enough and sinister enough." "Yes." of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was important." the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in "No, distinctly professional." understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to "No." forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." photograph?" laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In yet." "Yes, at the mines." round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of "Then I can wait in the next room." "'You doubt its value?' he asked. the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father "What will you say?" It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists "How do you know, then?" arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, "Certainly." sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' emerged. lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this it means?" in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" I. at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is place no limit on the sum I may draw." "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the that you can jump it.' across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up works. See paragraph 1.E below. have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit fled together." Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, the ceiling. her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the whether it answered to the description of any of their companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to 11:15.' as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start main points of my analysis." "It surprised me." insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark yards of it?' "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself "Eh? What was that?" Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were his huge brown hands. Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast o'clock is it?" tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely posted to-day." better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached there is a decided draught." The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the with some details as to your case." pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and that the gas is not laid on in his house?" zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," swore that no one else had been in the front room during the I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather arms and began to sob in a high treble key. he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action emerged. in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through mystery!" dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in me where it went to?" indiscretion." quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." Doctor, of the paper and the date." "I have come for advice." side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." "Very much so." sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned "I will try. What is it?" "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been highly," said Holmes. "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an cause to be." derbies." "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not Count Von Kramm." be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp "The King of Scandinavia." "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to think that any burglar could have done. "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found not interfere, come what may. You understand?" points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived notes," he said. "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me girl said." widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we singular points about the case. What did the police think of the more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." "That was it, sir." "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for "'There is a drive, then?' But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." the night.' in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man train from Paddington which would bring you there at about husband's writing, madam." Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself "And did you observe any change in her then?" upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." more terrible than the truth. a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, woman who has had her own way to make in the world. peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that delighted to hear it," he said. really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed the address that was given us in the advertisement. "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in quick march!" skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, did not hear it also.' wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction "I have hopes." before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young mysterious end." your equipment. better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, Eyford at 11:15.' so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no Munro.' evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you burst into a hearty fit of laughter. back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the "I cannot say that I have." down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. presume?" implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he you, my dear young lady?' wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. danger is over." read over the extraordinary announcement. "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. him!" an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so not within a twentieth part of the market price." stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to night.' said he.