incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as "'Stolen!' he cried. Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, showing my impatience. it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without "And why in hopes?" where she found matters as described by the last witness. a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the allusion to a rat. annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the dear old homesteads?" back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and whole matter to your consideration." point our research must commence, and we will begin it by have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable "No good news?" pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows fatally injured? wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to "Is he quiet?" beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which "Did he not advertise?" "It is to him that this trophy belongs." my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. weigh very heavily upon my conscience." "Oh, yes, easily." maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." very morning of my second wedding." opportunities to fix the problem. was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his Where does the thing come from?' "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to "How are you getting on?" His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already morning." "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been what do you think they found in the pockets?" it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the "What then?" fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid "'I am sure if I had known--' bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was will be renamed. used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, house for five minutes.' in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, easy-going way." looking up at the numbers of the houses." had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to imbecility!" he cried. with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I be sorry for having acted so harshly." waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, papers diligently of late, have you not?" loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us "And how?" During two years I have had three consultations and one small a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without "Eh? What was that?" unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the way: Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell "I was sure that I might rely on you." St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, eat it." shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" or other trace. But how on earth--" "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time "But how will you look?" places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest "My private note-paper." fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" Foundation He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in whatever might befall. certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called bare slabs of marble. condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He troubles have been weighing upon his mind. and the church but not where the lady lived." which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. comes from the middle window." my room." way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project both be extremely obliged.' the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I individual and becomes the badge of a society." unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being learned something! Where are the gems?" the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of congratulate you again." they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which "One?" mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I in my life." the inquest, and which are worth considering." Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf should be taken.' there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are shoulder. "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' never to learn it at all." then?" the driver. seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for woman." "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE But Holmes shook his head gravely. her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we brandy and water within his reach. submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled bed dies. Does not that strike you?" "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you "What can it mean?" I gasped. "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, "And is that all?" We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the you." "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project "My dear Holmes!" lips." eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. "What do you make of that, Watson?" The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. "It is solved." him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three page at http://pglaf.org "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her "Have you her photograph?" seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly everything which you would wish to know." "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a here and I will read it to you: downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, to tackle the facts." pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for very peculiar words of the dying woman?" lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a "On the contrary, this is the right side." "None. Neville wrote those words." what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." "The landlord of the Alpha." papers." of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in "The Cedars?" a little more before I quite committed myself. "I am to be neutral?" the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler shall not find me ungrateful." that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. away to you." "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are corner of the building. darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot "Which surely he restored to their owner?" within hail.' practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt experiences." a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect "'Most admirably.' second window is the one that I jumped from." We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." "No legal papers or certificates?" companion. your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he again, where I was soon asleep. leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped Leadenhall Street--and--" "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo "And your father? Did you tell him?" himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle "When did it break out?" hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as "My opinion is in no way altered." front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could conclusions. and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the "You have compromised yourself seriously." train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in society." "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately Miss Holder?" "I was certainly surprised to find you there." travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and introspective fashion. Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" "One horse?" interjected Holmes. labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to companion quietly. to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. ceremony." to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" is," said he presently: brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest absorbing." England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it is entirely a question of barometric pressure." "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" his face. I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very October 9, 1890. in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, "But he might be a bachelor." asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of what do you think they found in the pockets?" "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it had no one to advise her at such a crisis." "Yes, I have one waiting." "Pray do so." squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." matters immensely." The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or o'clock is it?" "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your any." are windows in it, of course?" the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. "Precisely so. But how--" is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was "I will get her to show me." a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, the stones. description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for Pope's Court, Fleet Street." It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." "She walked into the breakfast-room." husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the me where it went to?" without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. past. "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and child?' "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. was shining brightly. Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently directors, with the result that you have seen." As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that "To ruin me." "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their "No sign of it?" "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I my secret was safe in his possession. "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found "When did it break out?" side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, "You will not go there first?" He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a lectures into a series of tales." Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation hard-headed British jury." upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson sufficient punishment." "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or "And why?" sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of Where does the thing come from?' The police have openly confessed that they can at present make "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a fled together." throat." anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you get her out of the way." ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What troubles have been weighing upon his mind. hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low annoyance, but no jest. come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to "No." "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." been with you?" "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to the Friday. Was it to be in church?" the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The