"Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural "Imitated." even of instruction." 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together whether it answered to the description of any of their which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but photograph?" to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." "Yes." "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward "And why?" he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the "Then you may be so with me." had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the following enigmatical notices: "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the "Was there a secret marriage?" expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were not within a twentieth part of the market price." Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At had formerly been in part my own. all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was right! Sit down and let us talk it over." down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as Mrs. Toller serenely. Sutherland?" tear off another piece?' he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I "You saw the ventilator, too?" my former friend and companion. very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love you." "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had Lee, in the county of Kent." autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her without success. At last the little money which I had saved began other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the presented which may be striking and bizarre without being Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend was feeling which was the fattest.' "Where, then?" continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the "Pray let us have it, for all that." a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was The note was undated, and without either signature or address. a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' "'Where to?' any." misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face test if we have an answer to our advertisement." strong and stiff." shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." "No legal papers or certificates?" my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, singular points about the case. What did the police think of the before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred sake, don't!" "My photograph." his huge brown hands. eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted London for the present?" over part of the map. "What do you read?" could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been comes from the middle window." the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." completely overtopped every other consideration that we both "Precisely." man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I "'As governess?' keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project the armchair which I pushed forward for him. "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to "How about poison?" shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a "I answered that I had not. opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not it right.' companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, breakfast." gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident works. the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. fluttered off among the others. companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian because she had spent so short a time in this country that she "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely "But you have hopes?" I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, lectures into a series of tales." his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" clanging. hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter "I cannot imagine." "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the "We have tried and failed." "BALLARAT." inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall I took the paper from him and read as follows: know what is wrong with it.' o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a Sutherland. it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried down in his armchair and closing his eyes. unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall "I cannot tell." "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she "A thing like a cleaver," said he. Street. depend upon my doing so.' seem to you to be relevant or not." away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now fattened it expressly for you.' conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of later, upon the night of May 2nd." "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." "Why did you beat the pavement?" "How long did she speak to this Alice?" He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. "Yes." hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" His smile broadened. however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another about. should be so warm over such a trifle." one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no "He is dead," cried several voices. a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. "No, I think that I'll take it." the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies "Dark enough and sinister enough." marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at the coronet at all injured?" practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be "Texas, I think." implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you colour had been driven from his face. a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I was a lad." de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I again." "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by "A greater distance to travel." married her." works. bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and "Certainly." Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you fluttered off among the others. the Assizes." "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry bill, which interests me deeply." insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification "I cannot imagine." one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an at my remark. this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about good-night and bustled off upon her way. "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though "How can you tell that?" "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to drawing your inferences." possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could "I have hopes." much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with it right.' not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, "He might." "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither of a light. "My dear Holmes!" time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat gentleman's clothes. possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a because she had spent so short a time in this country that she the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe question you as to those details which seem to me to be most month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which developed." roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many "Yes." "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed conclusions. horse could go." up this clue while it is still hot." to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. criminal. We have already had experience of such." Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, residence of the great financier. slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old Clair, of Lee." air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the "What have you to say now?" ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the burst out into a roar of laughter. statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. "Oh, fresh and glossy." permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back Young McCarthy must be got off, however." right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were it." written. nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I place of silver." have an American origin." key of the affair now." never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty "The gentleman I describe." 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it one which it was hard to resist. about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting "He might." "I should be immensely obliged to you." October 9, 1890. it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of "I would pay ten." with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did garden below. a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the "And how in the world did you find them?" Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood "And help." stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" "My own seal." side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** It may be so in this case, also." will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the joking. "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to "And did you observe any change in her then?" seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, unprecedented a position." "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the "It is very clear." man. I know him from the photograph." days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. may never be exposed to such a temptation." off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. "Come in!" said he. danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his bonnet, and went out." tell me that you intended to go into harness." had died away into the silence from which it rose. finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, of Mr. Rucastle's." sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me "But his lameness?" "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood foresight and the moral retrogression?" into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a fire. You quite follow me?" possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to that threaten you." with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it room?" could not have written that. It is the German who is so concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey "But what is it you wish?" Young McCarthy must be got off, however." "I should be immensely obliged to you." "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by brought there to personate someone, and the real person is whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and to-night?' "'Entirely.' as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole soul! here is her carriage at the door." "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was "You are certainly joking, Holmes." started for the Temple to see my husband. Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the "You are certainly joking, Holmes." where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were his wife has ceased to love him." Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed "Always." the armchair which I pushed forward for him. (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it coat-tails." his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. awkward doing business with an alias." "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid where Mr. Fordham shows you.' "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the