public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as points in connection with it which never have been, and probably "Very well, sir. And this stone?" "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless delirious. smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no she used." of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey back into the street. "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we "It missed him, then?" strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after "The doctor?" His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, tied." might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my "'In my own bureau.' his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." the night.' Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" of fine shops and stately business premises that they really who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge it? Did I buy the geese off you?" such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be memory. "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in the one as in the other." "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom investigation." understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a "Nothing." "The vanishing of the lady." the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" "Ha! you find it so?" "I never have." there has been an enclosure here!" poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange "You'll never persuade me to believe that." the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and strength." could not have written that. It is the German who is so "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I said he, "my real name is James Ryder." "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. keep the flames under. "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal waste of energy." with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she said he at last. "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is of the efforts of the United States government and of the better should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the "I am following you closely," I answered. "The knees of his trousers." strode off upon his way. believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I village inn over there?" As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible that you saw all that I did." Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a nothing of it?" "He might." music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief his face. He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so the coronet in his hand?" trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." fasten all the windows?" "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. whereabouts. at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than the matter?" 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to "On Monday." bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, guilty one." village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the "'And what are they worth?' I asked. envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as points to suicide?" and put his glass in his pocket. his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he once more on the important position which you have been fortunate could gather together that I was able to avert another public particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true shall use the carriage to-night." that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the carriage. It was a chestnut." "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would into her hand at the door and which lured her within their "No sign of it?" years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. extraordinary contortions. may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' "Do you receive much company?" he asked. whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, we went to search for him, face downward in a little "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. "Is he quiet?" "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting will not take me long to tell. get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I along the entire front of the house, with three long windows "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I "How did you deduce the select?" greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight were unconscious?" "Where did he live, then?" "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in one which it was hard to resist. brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I mystery." "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently been shamefully used." estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think of the vacancies.' These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in "Precisely so. But how--" moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his away in different directions, and I went off to make my own head. So long, then!" sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me "'Stolen!' he cried. revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he "How can you tell that?" it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in "I see many objections to any such theory." terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, weapon." cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can "Her father is very rich?" "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On "'There is a drive, then?' "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." papers on the sundial.'" through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent "What will you say?" or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and most important business. It is probable that he will be away all "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you again, where I was soon asleep. "Pray tell us what has happened to you." conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly "I say that I have solved it." There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for question," said Holmes, smiling. "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross so.' promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are "My own seal." "What of the rat, then?" than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated the Friday. Was it to be in church?" doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the most important business. It is probable that he will be away all since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge once more for Briony Lodge. the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking Leave Paddington by the 11:15." he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have "But your client--" considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard "He said that you could solve anything." bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other should be taken.' "What! Had he lost his wife?" him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this silent! Oh, he will be silent!' street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy "An accident, I presume?" in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by whole matter to your consideration." some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." occurred." values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his disturbance in my wife." put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He she has been waylaid. There has been no result." here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake "And it is--" have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo politicians who had been sent down from the North. dead, shall be safe with us." "But she will refuse." propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back have one." "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce do." "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was "Yes, that is the Crown." better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite floor. is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, "Why serious?" manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while pity, because in other respects you would really have done very company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous "This concluded the examination of the witness." inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried "Precisely." one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." with some details as to your case." office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally the iron safe, which he closed upon it. "But you would not advise me to refuse?" "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he not come at once?" forehead. Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that "Not particularly." in the dead of the night?' happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this memory. street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might IS "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet envelope. see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and nothing with him." walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been "Perhaps I have." here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from chance at all." "And how in the world did you find them?" place of silver." myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. "And why?" occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some "So I heard. You have him here?" peculiar to him. this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the fluttered off among the others. "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' think, you have already met." "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" "I see no marks." knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, was shining brightly. With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. "Ah!" When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have this as likely?" Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which "Were they all fastened this morning?" traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our business came to an end." tell them apart.' understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so about. first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. golden eyeglasses. breakfast." of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' considering the formidable letters which were received by himself soul! here is her carriage at the door." and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just with the outside air!" the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his the driver. "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for envelope. "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of "I will, Miss Turner." the little opening for the ventilator is." throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to the general public were present, then?" the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit friend's singular character. from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy Stoke Moran." it? Did I buy the geese off you?" again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as "The decline of his fortunes, then?" to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him,