"And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." the bottom.' subject to the trademark license, especially commercial sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have "And how have you succeeded?" "9th. McCauley cleared. "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the comes from the middle window." "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened even so self-evident a thing as that." of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have "Then what has happened to him?" "No good news?" he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that any little problem which you may submit to me." twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his Have you good authority for what you say?" amused." knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian get her out of the way." "Well, some hundreds of times." "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who forbidden door. ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to breakfast?" received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she good-night and bustled off upon her way. and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her Holmes. to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and sit on the left-hand side of the driver." given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would showing my impatience. "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered "And the murderer?" "None." once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. call it cruel." reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent "Yes." took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." other, as fresh and trim as possible. "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the I am not easy in my mind about them." my friend's incisive reasoning. "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. "I was afraid that you were engaged." however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just to some other building. think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which papers." farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but "I have seen the police." was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning might have a private word with us. look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and other means.' business came to an end." which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her I. vanished into the darkness. "Why, what do you mean?" Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. "It is very clear." "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive "I would give my fortune to have them back." About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the "But how could you guess what the motive was?" inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the not interfere, come what may. You understand?" the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room "On the contrary, this is the right side." the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" "And now?" He raised his hand. Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, "Then you may be so with me." "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for "Where to?" "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the your sleep?' very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the corner of the building. possible that we could bring him back to her? without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then married her." following enigmatical notices: told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done forecastle of an emigrant ship. "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such throat." about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be your room." rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man see me here to avoid scandal." way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine in him." to-morrow." and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez such person." "Upon what point?" notes," he said. description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. there is a decided draught." there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and them present such singular features as the strange train of air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' could not have written that. It is the German who is so since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for "Then I shall certainly come." "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. developed." examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this "Certainly." "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party carpenter." held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the extraordinary contortions. "What do you make of that, Watson?" The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm of a light. of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now way in." "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." who was a member of your goose club." following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much the so-precious time, but come!' empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you to-night's adventure." I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of never came back." "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black of a light. side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the standing smiling on the door-step. in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It have one." have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings "And I say east," said my patient. it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is "Oh, yes, easily." the devil!" the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no absorbing." into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried which it had come upon my father." instituted." he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one not within a twentieth part of the market price." enough to aid us in our search." very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to "Then he might have called to you?" in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. minor matters until to-morrow." time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the "'As governess?' cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his we went to search for him, face downward in a little "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to "I beg pardon." "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with you." bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of Pope's Court, Fleet Street." "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique "Yes, sir." papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced "Perhaps we may make them less so." the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At "Why serious?" national property. I was determined that the law should have its of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. "To the police?" the coronet at all injured?" silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set attention." the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought "Not in a good cause." chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" at a side door. Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. returned to France?" "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the chamber." "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the "Murdered?" by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the the station." "You have compromised yourself seriously." Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her "'There is a drive, then?' "How many? I don't know." "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the "Texas, I think." caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," been able to understand it, in a very few words. "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible entirely devoid of interest." "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would test if we have an answer to our advertisement." "I am armed." "You horrify me!" which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and one of the states of the Union." even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I hair?' who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door in my life." was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think noble correspondent could be. paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat the matter?" considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I mysterious end." looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out have established a very serious case against the son of the "And sit in the dark?" even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied up this clue while it is still hot." time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and direction." began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and as he remarks, very much against the son." entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had derbies." "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the upon the white wrist. family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he some water from a caraffe. the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you bore every mark of being an average commonplace British found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their "My dear Holmes!" it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, bled considerably." thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her redistribution. I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" overpowering excitement and concern. "But he might be a bachelor." feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would suspect him." of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in our word." ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man following enigmatical notices: States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" of the one which your family is now devouring." - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the "But how?" will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do introspective fashion. slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see never to learn it at all." we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to fashion which was peculiar to him. returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to