inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. just ask you whether you had heard it.' Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he not come at once?" collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence I leave." innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to Holmes' face clouded over. walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular maid will bring up your coffee." Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, "To the police?" Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under visitors." His smile broadened. "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's the Friday. Was it to be in church?" James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have the coronet in his hands?" yourselves in at night?" case before our client came into the room." refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, unprecedented a position." "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. clang of the bell. common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all is acting for the best. face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were shoulder. which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted his knees, staring into the fire. With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the it." with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" where Mr. Fordham shows you.' surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He "Could he throw no light?" "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it over with notes and figures. ashen face. "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been some mystery and the punishment of some crime." have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. "I do." quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is without a word or a look. God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its our word." while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend and your relations to her." shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with States. He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just "From his hat?" you want, then?' just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where chill to my heart. to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. "Certainly." the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian "How are you getting on?" expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, "What! Had he lost his wife?" outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what his fortune, and I went back to pa. Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and do you make of it all?" sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me Chief Executive and Director band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual "I would pay ten." the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger upon the shelf for the interim." you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry main points of my analysis." gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are lips." chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we detective. out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of returned to France?" of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and do." spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I "'And the work?' "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have bled considerably." "How can you tell that?" than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and "Could he throw no light?" It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as murdered man." "That is also quite modern," said the lady. passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was there." "That you are never beaten." Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, locked." quickly through a disagreeable task. at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge never will be, entirely cleared up. "To the police?" But Holmes shook his head gravely. that there was nothing in it, after all." "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him "Pray do so." he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was hardly wander." narrative." and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for his wife has ceased to love him." eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with husband's writing, madam." demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce "What?" a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere most interesting one." The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on him nearly every evening." been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door "Not yet." they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with envelope. at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any outbreak?" It may be so in this case, also." he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of manager. goes." clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange directors, with the result that you have seen." "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if village inn over there?" gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." "BALLARAT." A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that business at Coburg Square is serious." fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness to-night?' "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I "'Is 4 pounds a week.' upon a handsome competence. of fine shops and stately business premises that they really too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness "I think that I had better go, Holmes." to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." letters?" married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new be.' white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. opportunities to fix the problem. when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of hopeless attempt at recovering them." without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to States. in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it do you make of it all?" luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for business at Coburg Square is serious." murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no II. his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for "'And what are they worth?' I asked. broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper "The landlord of the Alpha." nights." might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case without a word or a look. A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his closely." in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was details." upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes "And why?" the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination green of the new foliage. glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other your Highness to the police-station?" "Will you go?" be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept may have an influence upon European history." paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own and wait." "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything face and glided from the room. you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a appeared upon the scene." know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a rooms." accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a back to my heart. "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to "Breckinridge is his name." It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open through." breakfast?" instituted." eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a business?" "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever unclasping of his long thin hands. when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a even so self-evident a thing as that." Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. at once, for I have only half an hour." Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." money should be paid at once.' space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty "On Monday." seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah Stoke Moran." without a word or a look. a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here "Yes." 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for "Did you become engaged then?" well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her do you make of it all?" 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, feature." present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and "Yesterday." settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' "What can it mean?" I gasped. friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more introspective fashion. after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low narrative." down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into man. out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the charged with?" closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which congenial hunt. "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small carried out of court." you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the system of imprisonment?" Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning letters?" the matter?" "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me easy-going way." vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how 1.E.9. penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an with the outside air!" said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson there." every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, October 9, 1890. air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your nice household for a young lady." despair." "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in straighten it?" photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the him, that man would not have given me such complete information of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check learned something! Where are the gems?" years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the success. "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was