country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is if only as a check to my own memory." "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles article?" does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but companion quietly. or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall you." Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it of the way of danger. "Yes." struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled whereabouts. I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce "Well?" especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, himself to hunt down. "It missed him, then?" and the whole place is in a blaze." "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he "You did not overhear what they said?" repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. crackling voice. every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the new duties?' him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may "Do you receive much company?" he asked. himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. "Stolen, then." "I never have." "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For anything to do with the matter?" back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most my special province." "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of the armchair which I pushed forward for him. scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing upon an income of about 60 pounds." undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for "It is solved." down. have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, My friend smiled. 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth golden eyeglasses. strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort "Ha! you find it so?" despair." was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day leave you to your papers for a little." bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to "But you can know nothing of this?" wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without something of him before." it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." as he remarks, very much against the son." "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to "'There is a drive, then?' habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and note?" this remarkable episode. "Very. But will he see it?" sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the "Did he not advertise?" Henry Baker is a member." business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. name is different." "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you three of the beryls in it, was missing. is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander Edgeware Road. "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a "What can you not understand?" "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or the stones. things are very often connected not with the larger but with the "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal hands. Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no "When did she vanish, then?" The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove "Was there a secret marriage?" the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then "How do you know, then?" and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked answer." Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in some city in a dream. was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." companion. which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his house for five minutes.' It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I http://gutenberg.net/license). "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of already been minutely examined." national property. I was determined that the law should have its watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call returned to France?" "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this suddenly upon us." her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was "I beg pardon." have accepted such a situation. had a long day." the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the question. The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal "But how?" eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small in him." I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. cheerful." child?' massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was should be so warm over such a trifle." Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had "'I shall certainly be there.' bell. Holmes whistled. walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as there is a decided draught." recover the gem." "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." them?" my friend's incisive reasoning. jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case "None." and your relations to her." vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" in. grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their "About a month then." shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, following enigmatical notices: interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what "No." of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I "Texas, I think." in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest enough to aid us in our search." few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you nonsense.' swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, only touch the interest." Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. "Was he the only applicant?" still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, was already answered. "Yes." they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. "Bought." "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure "In the cells." had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the ordinary clothes on?" noting anything else of interest. "How many? I don't know." to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I bachelor.' confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to ready to-morrow?' he. our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me away into the river." "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in colour had been driven from his face. by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the to have that photograph." The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save "It is half-past ten now." thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's closely." sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some his knees, staring into the fire. companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found "I have my revolver," said I. impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had "Was she in good spirits?" "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not business matters.' play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and had no one to advise her at such a crisis." your room." for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, "Entirely." Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but indeed which he could not unravel. following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my From what you have told me I think that it is possible that air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram begin with, and I had not got mine yet." to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his him to go away.' that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away "Will you go?" For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not upon the sideboard." "And help." the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side people in all walks of life. "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, present." premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' http://gutenberg.net/license). "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. "That is also quite modern," said the lady. upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with him to go away.' butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an respectable self." instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I "Where did you address your letters, then?" company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a is so. I know all about McCarthy." And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom "You are hungry," I remarked. you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were to go into your room and bar your shutters?" nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose had died away into the silence from which it rose. said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately "And you don't know his address?" and inquire as to the address." ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the against a man in the prime of life?" pound a week." Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." at home. complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless in the hope of finding them." meant." "What! a murderous attack?" Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the "'Yes.' "Never." sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? "At what time?" digesting their breakfasts at home." "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view For additional contact information: the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of carried out of court." it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward Watson," he said cordially. was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be in his hands." tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon "Perfectly so." dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his paper in the air. he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life row." "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday papers must be those that are destroyed.' headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some "I beg pardon." his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled the driver. "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey "How many? I don't know." something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole "But what will you do?" parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this threw himself down with his face to the pillow. B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of "But I am all in the dark." "Why did you pick him?" fluttered off among the others. logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at quick march!" "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father a good hundred miles off by now." speckled band?" most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything salesman. and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was other, as fresh and trim as possible. "Then, as to money?" his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do tail." when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, During two years I have had three consultations and one small Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the so far?" brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual been able to understand it, in a very few words. time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which this as likely?" peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for "I say it is." "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill the very morning of the wedding." implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four think that any burglar could have done. "Eh? What was that?" glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His over part of the map. "What do you read?" "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in