twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which "I am sure." "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, do.' foot. from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., "Witness: It was. It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, obstinate." "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who hopeless attempt at recovering them." "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment back into the street. the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion troubles have been weighing upon his mind. paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an had died away into the silence from which it rose. "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no question you as to those details which seem to me to be most "Ha! you find it so?" never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I strong reason behind." previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." "How long did she speak to this Alice?" "'Certainly not. But why?' "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. God! What an exposure! What can I do?" in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was "Of what?" - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was "If I can be of use." "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly hand, madam?" was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of foot. "How long did she speak to this Alice?" "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea eavesdroppers?' Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in "'What would be the hours?' I asked. Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself fat-encircled eyes. chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a meant." years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if call the police, let the police find what they can.' my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I been anything against him. He had for years been known as a more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. me. nothing with him." "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer "And sit in the dark?" "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock "It was a confession," I ejaculated. my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a been lifted and conveyed somewhere." horse could go." "On the contrary, this is the right side." very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." and I shall be with you presently." sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I ways of our fellow-men." these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" hopeless attempt at recovering them." "Then you may entirely rely on me." the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the "We were both in the photograph." Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. that I may have something better before very many minutes are "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. enough to aid us in our search." kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two useful material for showing traces. The double line a little room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where "I came to find a friend." the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror "The King of Scandinavia." for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended daring than any effort of the imagination." to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end "I think it very unlikely." open." "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of prisoner's face. "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled it were putty." our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. "No." VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of beg that you will break it off." the date of his supposed suicide." return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was you found me to-night--and running through the front room she hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. "You think that he is dead?" to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her begin with, and I had not got mine yet." she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was Pope's Court, Fleet Street." washing it down with a long draught of water. given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." touch that coronet?' down from London to inquire more deeply into it." the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. sit on the left-hand side of the driver." desk. "'There is a drive, then?' come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much stepfather?" "I guessed as much." "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the "Perfectly so." card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his "I was sure that I might rely on you." "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to photograph a cabinet?" pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but "Well, some hundreds of times." give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my handed it to him. "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. come either from the window or the door. My attention was position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could night.' said he. editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that spare." cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the "Seven!" I answered. year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which "Indeed! Whose, then?" views." now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I locked. room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for "It is very kind of you." ways including including checks, online payments and credit card in one or two places in England?' astonishment. "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon married her." of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence new acquaintance to Baker Street. It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. populous neighbourhood." "'Oh, no.' glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of said he at last. introspective fashion. drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." From what you have told me I think that it is possible that thought that she would have been so carried away." once more for Briony Lodge. which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, appointment with me for six o'clock?" pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" "The Cedars?" "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion never to learn it at all." "What steps will you take?" I asked. silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence beyond words. "And you don't know his address?" public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. Eyford at 11:15.' "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a "It is solved." in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. reach." heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had sake, don't!" would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that occurred." "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that his grey eyes. his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, "BALLARAT." some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their some mystery and the punishment of some crime." "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my "Nor running a chance of arrest?" abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his your own bird, so if you wish--" conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; cigar and let me expound." number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at "But how will you look?" results." preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet "And why in hopes?" cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can an introduction to him?" me. Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution go from here to the Strand." by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior reach." self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the was it brought him the coronet? Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. assist you in forming an opinion." Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting the very letters. But what is this written above them?' "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that "I am all attention, madam." feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped upon the shelf for the interim." "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project sentimental considerations in the background which would induce down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. bore every mark of being an average commonplace British He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and I was concerned in it." "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." present." pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. sparkled upon his finger. his grey eyes. "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be what these perils are?" hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was call you and give you the chance." same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, something of him before." other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had do you make of it all?" "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' tied." "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips prisoner's face. wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and "How about poison?" states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, you found me to-night--and running through the front room she "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! "Deserted you?" ways of our fellow-men." come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." always that they were such commands as a lady might with "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated "I am still in the dark." the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to "Upon what point?" Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his new acquaintance to Baker Street. "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw "If so, much may have happened between." and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. "My opinion is in no way altered." lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the and the whole place is in a blaze." sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which