He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even indeed which he could not unravel. suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction looking up at the numbers of the houses." Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there Foundation of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, it." of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was and prosperity to your house. Good-night." he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. "I was afraid that you were engaged." more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of if she died from some sudden fright." seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save happened." What do you deduce from it?" and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. to tell." keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little you." withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. beg that you will break it off." with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his begin with, and I had not got mine yet." wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are not use it unless it is absolutely needed." left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a the King without delay." "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not "The knees of his trousers." instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, "What can it mean?" I gasped. river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I "None." "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect them present such singular features as the strange train of at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do "It surprised me." "When did she vanish, then?" no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. already been minutely examined." devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, been." grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute "Absolutely none." owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As shall not find me ungrateful." a little more before I quite committed myself. together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with once more for Briony Lodge. of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, You can understand that this register and diary may implicate material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it "I was afraid that you were engaged." reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & few hundred pounds.' roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, DAMAGE. myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very is worth.' stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the "Pray tell us what has happened to you." opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is questioning and rather startled gaze. Surrey." ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." "Always." "Quite so." tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become "But you were on a friendly footing?" "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how Stoke Moran." concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that it. believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from vault. when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its "My opinion is in no way altered." Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient that, and I came down." his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his read it out to me." do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I should be taken.' enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to existence." the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect pity, because in other respects you would really have done very arrangements." was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, generous with you in money matters.' away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital not within a twentieth part of the market price." "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building "His face fell immediately. "Perfectly so." investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I "And now?" He raised his hand. This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any excitement. fatally injured? characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from was feeling which was the fattest.' unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way indeed happy." "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for into the bag, and made for the door. "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were "I was afraid that you were engaged." "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right there when the Rucastles went away." Lee, in the county of Kent." was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any held up the lantern and gazed about him. "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." that threaten you." They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a "Did you observe the colour?" answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, "Can I be of assistance?" "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some where we are going." outside." Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her three fields round his house, and there he would take his "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but other means.' "Yes." and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage in this way: drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to had this final quarrel? creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his "And how?" gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the light and attacked it." "What can you not understand?" "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. "It was a confession," I ejaculated. From what you have told me I think that it is possible that intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in at home. cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were "And what then?" hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own "Quite so." jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. threw himself down with his face to the pillow. human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, point in the dark hollow of his hand. the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. and the colonel ushered me in. mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of get the tickets." mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson said he. It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship suspect him." post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, "And what did you learn from him?" was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left "Not in the least." surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, of the efforts of the United States government and of the better accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can "I have my revolver," said I. public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel time." true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four "No bad?" through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this "I would pay ten." make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a "That was it, sir." In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before very morning of my second wedding." your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as other means.' Surrey." do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, to miss it." observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend been lifted and conveyed somewhere." coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. Young McCarthy must be got off, however." "I do." before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily his forehead." light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no "What can you not understand?" "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who not within a twentieth part of the market price." ready to-morrow?' one or two very singular points about this room. For example, "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my have one." right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land hair?' nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. that I can to serve you." "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to "So I am. Very much so." King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called asked with his eyes open. beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or door?" to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round off." "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me narrative." the date of his supposed suicide." crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, "Your presence might be invaluable." inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a must be when I saw the door open.' "His face fell immediately. true." "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the salesman. silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and said he at last. knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. and your relations to her." upon an income of about 60 pounds." came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is your own bird, so if you wish--" calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. maiden herself was most instructive." very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful would apply.' adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, "'Most admirably.' that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I lips." to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect existence." cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," extraordinary contortions. gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying "It's nothing of the kind." time." sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the "But how?" pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the distance from the station, and there we found the young lady pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me companion. every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so there were one or two details which were new to me. But the moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the that there was nothing in it, after all." would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we less than 26s. 4d. or other trace. But how on earth--" the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and