your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our dear old homesteads?" Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of "I have a cab outside." are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated disappearance of these gems?" spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended chill to my heart. hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the mystery." "'There is a drive, then?' The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. and inquire as to the address." labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign weighed down with some great anxiety. ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have question you as to those details which seem to me to be most "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor this poor creature." of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but footfalls from the street. see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious You can understand that this register and diary may implicate "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will hands. the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag everything which you would wish to know." lips." once more. "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day Project Gutenberg-tm works. a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. politicians who had been sent down from the North. the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the upon an income of about 60 pounds." at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We train from Paddington which would bring you there at about "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and bird I ate is country bred." "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, "He is still with you, I presume?" has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before had this final quarrel? single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not of this gang." intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings of receipt of the work. "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the ways of our fellow-men." such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at corner of the building. particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be "What then?" "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it was the fact that his father should, according to his account, I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To I am not easy in my mind about them." be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was "Nothing?" remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare lamp in his hand. cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to The telegram which we eventually received came late one night reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first or other trace. But how on earth--" more terrible than the truth. I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a friends, not even his own brother. "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. "That sounds a little paradoxical." wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the that he has suffered." his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I him!" his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I 1.F. Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous "'And the work?' dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a and that he would see to anything that turned up. "That is it on the dressing-table." unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the Munro.' the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried "You were travelling in the States?" "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said think that he is innocent?" Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found written, and locked the door of the office after me. breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up over his head with a sweet womanly caress. whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge kind enough to tell me what I should do." Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive invisible to me," I remarked. "He disappeared so suddenly." "My dear Holmes!" "I am to be neutral?" We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible just ask you whether you had heard it.' thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who again." I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. case-book, which he consulted. directors, with the result that you have seen." inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or you." "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she official police." "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" meanly of me." "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you stepfather?" "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw tension within him. We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a be. "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of in his power. back into the street. "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. promised to bring home. shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' to have that photograph." "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson "You have it, sir, just as it happened." "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so From what you have told me I think that it is possible that were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two side. papers diligently of late, have you not?" whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," their singular warning or token before them when starting upon I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big friend's singular character. then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. about. "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never your billet.' "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat matter over." building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches "Very well, sir. And this stone?" "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. instincts rose up against that laugh. while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their "Precisely." promised to bring home. why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door bed dies. Does not that strike you?" His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at strong and stiff." practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but "My Mary? Impossible!" have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently for securing the situation." game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or other, as fresh and trim as possible. "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought other lovers by making love himself." McCarthy." considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. lids now and glanced across at his visitor. ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of upon the white wrist. something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out read it out to me." headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes a good hundred miles off by now." waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should recall any case within my experience which looked at the first my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until "Dark enough and sinister enough." which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He memory. "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure threw himself down with his face to the pillow. time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique union?" allusion to a rat. "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw himself. fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, "Yes." total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce "'No, I know no one in these parts.' "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her not use it unless it is absolutely needed." elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, it." "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most the coroner come to?" him. "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have will he say when he returns?" already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted voice. character. Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. what I may call a really hard day's work." "'Never.' "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple interested in these little problems, and since you are good strong and stiff." furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" night.' said he. of it with the greatest attention. "I think that it is very probable." "You horrify me." the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the of the way of danger. murdered man." waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant "No?" fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. "'Tell me all about it,' said I. weigh very heavily upon my conscience." take the flies, but not before." "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not "There is the writing." his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a "'Never,' said I. exactly what you advise." her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, this man was intellectual?" we went to search for him, face downward in a little beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of "But his left-handedness." only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. You can understand that this register and diary may implicate at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid closing the door. really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed "What, then, did Peterson do?" frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" the stable lane now." and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just be sorry for having acted so harshly." foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found