Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole the nursery. Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly children over to America with him, so that I found myself without one else, I think." for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has you." a suggestive one." I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue the station." are, I think, all that we need." not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out you in yours." The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, instituted." prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day "Texas, I think." "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum breakfast and whispered something to her husband. even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I carpenter." cigars in the box." usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did "What?" "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar "'Why that?' I asks. electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with sofa. This way, please!" "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, "Pray continue your narrative." "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version tell him that I know him to be innocent." and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar of campaign. "I think that I had better go, Holmes." "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I that threaten you." Does that suggest anything?" I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic your Highness to the police-station?" for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that "Imitated." latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the "But your client--" that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both "Yes, sir." what do you think they found in the pockets?" Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the and your relations to her." work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter letters?" detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the wedding?" has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally outside. met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read back into the street. side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his License. You must require such a user to return or maid will bring up your coffee." glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he now. It seems that there had been some informality about their the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before wanted for ourselves." "Yes, at the mines." whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project and the church but not where the lady lived." It may be so in this case, also." evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police strong reason behind." wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an "What I expected to see." demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been "You saw the ventilator, too?" but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his you." answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The thirty. "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman may never be exposed to such a temptation." "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you You want to know what became of those geese?" emerged. Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The there in twenty minutes." I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone it with his own hands." and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and "What steps will you take?" I asked. that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect face and glided from the room. with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several which are rolled in Rotterdam." maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which "Yes, he did." Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, "And you don't know his address?" elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, mystery!" into the bag, and made for the door. "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide "What! You do not mean bodies?" neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. "Yes, from Horsham." safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known without success. At last the little money which I had saved began "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." chill to my heart. deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters my special province." hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us she has been waylaid. There has been no result." "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the the so-precious time, but come!' adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called his fortune, and I went back to pa. 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged him. make me his representative both with the servants and with the England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," "I answered that I had not. "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as "But I am all in the dark." "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. "How can you tell that?" tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me "So it appears." so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. had no one to advise her at such a crisis." burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while "His face fell immediately. unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy over part of the map. "What do you read?" assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the signal between you and your father? chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, client, rising. himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. during that time.' "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, "Where to?" cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come "I do." "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman "'And what salary do you ask?' manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long unprofitable." was a lad." call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the observed. "On your arm?" enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to have one." still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very your room." concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to to Leatherhead. schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning "From his hat?" cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set him!" Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our heavily into it. our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which redistribution. when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet "No, I am descending." open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger should be so warm over such a trifle." have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this visitors." benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at "It is possible." "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir strong and stiff." for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who "Did you observe the colour?" "Look there!" said he. for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low three of the beryls in it, was missing. "It must be recovered." "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter have not had my rubber." question you as to those details which seem to me to be most so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have people in all walks of life. "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight stammered. "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and "Absolutely none." "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess "'Tell me all about it,' said I. part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" as yours." distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than "Entirely." was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a "I was mad--insane." have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. key turn in the lock." been shamefully used." hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we through." "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to "'Is purely nominal.' suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and October 9, 1890. Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She be sorry for having acted so harshly." over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, see me here to avoid scandal." magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea "What do you make of that, Watson?" Heh?' son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. rat could hardly pass through." in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, "Then I shall certainly come." my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you "Why, it's a dummy," said he. copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE "Your sister is dead, then?" waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg his huge brown hands. and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed what these perils are?" inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all side. "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when nothing with him." there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but and the whole place is in a blaze." dramatic, in fact." "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock "Witness: It was. very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, behind me. bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but bed dies. Does not that strike you?" been able to understand it, in a very few words. thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from yet." "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" companion. enter Dr. Roylott's room." floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the