by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing Again Holmes raved in the air. the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the light and attacked it." my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is "So it appears." arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, the armchair which I pushed forward for him. "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, without a word or a look. indiscretion." on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at "Not I." their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given lumber-room." the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in will be renamed. "To ruin me." unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ "It was." "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and overpowering excitement and concern. the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the simple cases which are so extremely difficult." about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all fashion which was peculiar to him. humiliation." forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then late." those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can Holmes' thin, eager face. directors, with the result that you have seen." his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed again, where I was soon asleep. such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When fire. You quite follow me?" to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which "But how?" season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may "And I say east," said my patient. empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the "The rest you will leave in our hands." exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an what I may call a really hard day's work." advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the is so. I know all about McCarthy." hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." narrative." and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the round with crates and massive boxes. "Certainly." We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. I nodded to show that I had heard. had no one to advise her at such a crisis." rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. "And how?" sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church "From his hat?" would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." closing the door. "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, future lives." hand, madam?" when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography "Nearly eleven." think you a quite exceptional woman." from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making upon the shelf for the interim." a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near "In answer to an advertisement." had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of some terrible trap for her." which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my lost his Christmas dinner." "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" danger is over." "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle and wait." Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge "I shall be delighted." prepare for the new role I have to play." You want to know what became of those geese?" matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," believe that I should never have any practice at all. have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all sofa. This way, please!" which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging thought that she would have been so carried away." seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that to tackle the facts." more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with "'Then let me do so?' "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. fatally injured? "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same undoubtedly my uncle's." even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and "Where, then?" fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" "In the cells." "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, McCarthy." "You will not go there first?" ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite "'What, the red-headed man?' his face which made him a very different person to the round, alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of "Why did you beat the pavement?" could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were in. time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a "And how in the world did you find them?" skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty annoyance, but no jest. the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We papers must be those that are destroyed.' "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a the running down." clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus without a word or a look. river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of "A client, then?" and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her envelope. "At what time?" "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You "On your arm?" "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor I shall communicate with you." you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three The police have openly confessed that they can at present make fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon "You know me, then?" controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study standing smiling on the door-step. passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train flock.' "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a weapon." one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little orange pips. Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. the driver. "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight affair. "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, affection." "'How far from the body?' "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is "I am sure." about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the said he. "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I "But not more so than I to find you." mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the bird of prey. and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! peculiar to him. official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." article?" "Proceed, then." some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel "Yes, sir." and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on ways including including checks, online payments and credit card "Then you may be so with me." I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old house for five minutes.' Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no records." to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" leave you to your papers for a little." hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. trying to your nerves." neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the during that time.' disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have "Yes, from Horsham." my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. noting anything else of interest. "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the client, rising. the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that her also." given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as ventilator." which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work "Your sister is dead, then?" to a more successful conclusion." which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's at a side door. vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working "By no means." foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman way in." seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in "I fear not." "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon that he has suffered." wedding?" said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the tightly behind him. "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting correct than the official force." "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a to-night?" I asked. interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he "Yes, only one." in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed Holmes' thin, eager face. afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his maiden herself was most instructive." "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." meant." "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able "Nothing." burst out into a roar of laughter. and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was that you wished to speak to me?' exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by to where he stood hid behind the curtain. the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was Countess of Morcar's?" Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a examine." "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall during which he might have communicated with his friend the gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there Heh?' which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this "Tired-looking or fresh?" threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of it with his own hands." freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back III. the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the is so. I know all about McCarthy." fait accompli?" play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such "She will not sell." a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent "But what is it you wish?" whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, lamp in his hand. "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if "And now?" I asked. his face. "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" along the entire front of the house, with three long windows ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not "But I am all in the dark." despaired of." you found me to-night--and running through the front room she smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt feature." as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another present." tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall wanted for ourselves." "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it sound at heart." squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of "Stolen, then." by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in "But you would not advise me to refuse?" paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I power."