usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk points in connection with it which never have been, and probably back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or test if we have an answer to our advertisement." ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of hopeless attempt at recovering them." contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary it means?" "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the business." cost them two and thirty pounds." quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, signal between you and your father? "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King "It may not come to that," said Holmes. Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the me. "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to overpowering excitement and concern. sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the where Mr. Fordham shows you.' "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering of receipt of the work. somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." wife's character?" "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm "Well." THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He "Did your wife hear all this?" the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I started for the Temple to see my husband. attention." heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any on re-entering her father's house?" others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do business." red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the gbnewby@pglaf.org not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear "You will not go there first?" of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. deduce something from that?" St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at "Dr. Becher's." We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is spark where all is dark to me." and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with "Well, it is a possible supposition." fish-monger and a tide-waiter." took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my in the hope of finding them." whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous subject to the trademark license, especially commercial "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a "Yes, sir." and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your but preventing her from injuring another. "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about "Yes, from Horsham." sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, meant." "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a "At half-wages, in fact." we went to search for him, face downward in a little fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a wedding?" During two years I have had three consultations and one small "And sit in the dark?" door?" "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden "Oh, the cause is excellent!" back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a "On Monday." my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open "Won't it ring?" which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, the armchair which I pushed forward for him. It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, closely." the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free "But who is he?" successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a acquaintance?" creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or It was close upon four before the door opened, and a "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the have not had my rubber." "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a "By no means." "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" "In what way?" asked Holmes. permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain "How can you tell that?" "That is it on the dressing-table." that before taking the final step I should like to submit the "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. enter Dr. Roylott's room." severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday society." hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my desk. compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small directors, with the result that you have seen." slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which his cane at the bell-pull. similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. Sutherland?" drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. key turn in the lock." "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to "On your arm?" "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke "But your client--" "In heaven's name, what for?" that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, "But of what society?" judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow useful material for showing traces. The double line a little came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old "What, then, did Peterson do?" "Absolutely none." important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The friends, not even his own brother. been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." that the gas is not laid on in his house?" lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would "Nothing?" Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I nothing with him." visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you may never be exposed to such a temptation." "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this I shall communicate with you." cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent the address that was given us in the advertisement. am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your Where does the thing come from?' what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in "She showed me, as I told you she would." "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness "Not social, then?" I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." "But your client--" "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no instincts rose up against that laugh. "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any place no limit on the sum I may draw." high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to "It must be recovered." away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I time." in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We "What steps will you take?" I asked. III. would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which test if we have an answer to our advertisement." the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he fait accompli?" being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms down. eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it confronted him. On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his your most interesting statement." "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed "But how?" cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and bachelor.' believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a him!" afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. trifles." the house with me." the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our October 9, 1890. Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No and looked back. another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, of Mr. Rucastle's." my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something begin with, and I had not got mine yet." "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek Holmes rather sternly. to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right "What office?" doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he allusion to a rat. these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you writing, and yet I know it well." Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring over here." The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all and wait." and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a "'Oh, no.' fish-monger and a tide-waiter." we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its upon an income of about 60 pounds." The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided "'Yes, I promise.' "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the just ask you whether you had heard it.' "Yes." 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an "Dirty?" of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I like that before?" layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door our word." unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. you understand?" something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country "That you are never beaten." "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the morning." house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest Leave Paddington by the 11:15." "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his "I will get her to show me." wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall one's self under obligations.' little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong and the colonel ushered me in. that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation "I have hopes." from you?" increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, "My private note-paper." friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" lamp. fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they call the police, let the police find what they can.' "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a that Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, "I see many objections to any such theory." lamp. followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical fled together." particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a morning." "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' "It's nothing of the kind." foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and had died away into the silence from which it rose. Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people kindly on the shoulder. It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and "I guessed as much." "And how have you succeeded?" error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the daring than any effort of the imagination." "'There is a drive, then?' half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of stammered. male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do were unconscious?" Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous and the church but not where the lady lived." "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the "What have you to say now?" the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the tied." better in every way that they should make their position a little He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his to have that photograph." finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a once more for Briony Lodge. I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but front of the hall door has given its name to the place. "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for