orange pips. analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the passage and a tap at the door. so far?" "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, mystery may be cleared along those lines." the nursery. see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper "Murdered?" "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my narrative." inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the at my remark. lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a astonishment. had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her do you make of it all?" other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room to take care of herself." premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an have had none more fantastic than this." what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, "When did it break out?" rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a correct than the official force." clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in "Won't it ring?" propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" residence of the great financier. "You think so, too?" "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? me." me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for comes from the middle window." with frightened eyes at his accuser. the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my something of him before." as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, "I am to be neutral?" visitors." "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get business." of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite than was visible to me." see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I whereabouts. quite distinctive." "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. "How long did she speak to this Alice?" "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would "No, distinctly professional." "In what way?" asked Holmes. "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save "An accident, I presume?" in darkness. slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is stood on the top of it. "Why serious?" "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened became a certainty. That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. fishes. "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his "I fear not." One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when "I know where it is." orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies "You know me, then?" "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his Dr. Gregory B. Newby mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the "Then he might have called to you?" "How are you getting on?" That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by young Openshaw's." her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear brain must have something in it." he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. "How did you trace it, then?" Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the fear." glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" my room." ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. such attractions and accomplishments?' think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. "Yes." essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards said Mr. Holder. "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, "Never to return." can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an details." client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped "Yes." that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." "'Certainly not. But why?' "No. What a strange idea!" We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used astonishment. A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, "He is still with you, I presume?" on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country nonsense.' delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was in him." leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads in. imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally "But who is he?" chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" "He slept on the premises." Pope's Court, Fleet Street." "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been congenial hunt. "Yes, the wine-cellar." need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and "Certainly." "Won't it ring?" away to you." any little problem which you may submit to me." has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when dates and names. any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be both be extremely obliged.' "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." strong reason behind." "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower "Yes, he did." Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at could not account in any way for the presence of the missing King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from sufficient punishment." bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." to arrive at through this?" I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have "Was there a secret marriage?" house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself "'How far from the body?' "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the already referred to. in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to "You don't mind breaking the law?" to change my dress. hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his notes," he said. "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What rooms." the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for "'Which dealer's?' the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. "Then he might have called to you?" Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." "'There is a drive, then?' Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert to-night?' near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist father's place of business?" in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my "And why?" "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This "Which surely he restored to their owner?" "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in room. my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have "Here?" was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a believe that I should never have any practice at all. to have been novel and of interest." up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to the running down." "My Mary? Impossible!" man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' are, and they are waiting for us." late." society." entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, "And when will you call?" "Where, then?" this poor creature." "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make particular state visit http://pglaf.org only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the get the tickets." "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a "Yes, only one." villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a shoulder; "he's all right." of the way of danger. Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the other lovers by making love himself." old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the I think that I could be of assistance to you." envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not been." impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been London for the present?" carpenter." deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of "Here?" it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." "Did you become engaged then?" sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon "On the contrary, this is the right side." begun to whiten, even as mine has." ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the outside." "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would "Then the page we have seen--" Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been "And now?" He raised his hand. rose-bushes. "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are nights." stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to "Not yet." It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable them?" without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any again on its way. Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that impression behind it as though a window had gently closed salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. was already answered. daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. copied or distributed: have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. this man was intellectual?" "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want pity, because in other respects you would really have done very with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is burst into a hearty fit of laughter. hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the "It is half-past ten now." entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just again on its way. paper in the air. of Mr. Rucastle's." the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in "The murder was done with it." address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and whole matter to your consideration." on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, as he remarks, very much against the son." slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to present." hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in one which it was hard to resist. Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my villagers almost as much as their master. to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his you do it in twenty minutes!' I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the "You have the photograph?" it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over "Yes." help us in this matter." "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, go--none." girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off call for it in person on Monday morning.' "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He prepare for the new role I have to play." directors, with the result that you have seen." I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my "May I see it?" believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, ventilator." "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will your troubles." strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most "That is unusual in a young girl." derbies." "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into