until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and lids now and glanced across at his visitor. "It is his hat." "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all "He said too much." "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was "The best possible." wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a dates and names. Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and "Then what has happened to him?" of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from seven miles from Eyford Station.' snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and "I am still in the dark." go--none." "Breckinridge is his name." "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and against a man in the prime of life?" myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my "How did you deduce the select?" the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling "'And the work?' is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for "My stepfather's business papers." "'Where could I find him?' instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how together. she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." humiliation." I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. "No, I think that I'll take it." "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her "If so, much may have happened between." us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and learned something! Where are the gems?" been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil appeared upon the scene." some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the "But his left-handedness." "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my things are very often connected not with the larger but with the sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the of it with the greatest attention. "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a right! Sit down and let us talk it over." have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, been shamefully used." you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he papers diligently of late, have you not?" "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door to have that photograph." ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered three of the beryls in it, was missing. with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest most important business. It is probable that he will be away all the Assizes." erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp "There are none." was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of his eyes and forehead. "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting strong and stiff." "What do you mean?" air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your business matters.' seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, woman who has had her own way to make in the world. very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in eavesdroppers?' Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case "I am following you closely," I answered. "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions "It is true that I have been generally successful." all?" moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare "Pray be precise as to details," said he. Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, cheerful." a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw gentleman's clothes. his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune help us in this matter." questionable one." not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her such attractions and accomplishments?' town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the me." little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, locked." "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you meant it for the best. "And for present expenses?" from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the once more to my work. permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity shaken than I had ever seen him. It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the derbies." She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so your most interesting statement." pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the plantation.' Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too ill-usage at the hands of fortune. beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet "My private note-paper." "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had photograph a cabinet?" eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. visitors." "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, I shall communicate with you." be.' ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said held up the lantern and gazed about him. "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. "What shall I do?" that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." closing the door. himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the details should find their way into the papers. Inspector "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version "And now?" He raised his hand. we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can "Then I can wait in the next room." a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which "What can it mean?" I gasped. gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who danger is over." with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," extraordinary contortions. Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting very peculiar words of the dying woman?" "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without "It is his hat." as he folded up the epistle. the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the "What then?" "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. "Your French gold?" will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. "Certainly." "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have hardly wander." "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I I. and the colonel ushered me in. them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. question," said Holmes, smiling. sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by is worth.' Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no this man was intellectual?" 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. girl said." frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set heavy and sharp instrument." "How on earth--" "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I the bottom.' as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn wall." have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, forehead. this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the to me. "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" "You horrify me." as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to quickly through a disagreeable task. bare slabs of marble. hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would security.' should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not is a common subject for conversation. this remarkable episode. somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the "Never." to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a Holmes. the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt 'I should be able to look after that for you.' "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. think that any burglar could have done. enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't "Yes." before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." straightened it out again. tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I "Certainly." accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached "I would pay ten." was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" straightened it out again. "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have roused himself from his reverie. passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his wedding?" "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused "It is half-past ten now." and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at question," said Holmes, smiling. Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." "'I have heard so.' were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the "I see many objections to any such theory." out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty promised to bring home. flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was meant it for the best. "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I you for a few hours?" a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of hour?' "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during definite end. you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no threw himself down with his face to the pillow. "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, "Witness: Nothing definite. man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and "But you were on a friendly footing?" watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a other means.' out." "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I which we had just quitted. anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof time." St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but was a lad." that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was before the coroner and the police-court." contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's already been minutely examined." can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's into the room. card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it goes." him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though look dissatisfied." "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the client, rising. in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a "Was he the only applicant?" highly," said Holmes. came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such once more on the important position which you have been fortunate son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the