secret." of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue License. You must require such a user to return or Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." criminal. We have already had experience of such." very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: must be when I saw the door open.' unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. visitors." Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much garden below. The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't one of them." to have been novel and of interest." explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" "'What, the red-headed man?' looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out me, and I could not think that his explanation of the the inquest, and which are worth considering." "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I "I don't believe it." anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." "Witness: I must still refuse. "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave good-night and bustled off upon her way. blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own respectable self." natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in him to go away.' and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune in this way: Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments "You horrify me!" before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the "You horrify me." question. outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must that you can jump it.' road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the promised to bring home. my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his gigantic client. Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years you?" that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. "Thank you. And your address?" greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross quick march!" fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing with you?" was once confined in the cab my mission was practically present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of where she found matters as described by the last witness. the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy village inn over there?" "How did you deduce the select?" together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, asked. no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." "Look there!" said he. "But we can't all be." him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside is a common subject for conversation. me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from sufficient punishment." never to learn it at all." almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. annoyance, but no jest. presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar bedroom door." The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet "I have solved it." vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and light and attacked it." of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, keep the flames under. best detective that ever lived. process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all corner of the building. my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of in his hands." old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after "We have tried and failed." done what I asked you, Jones?" dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found second." shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless "Here?" been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he interest. They are important, you understand, without being that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" in his hands." her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders "No. His orders were to stay in the house." again before evening." the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. "Here?" walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend started for the Temple to see my husband. "Because he was handy and would come cheap." "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been "She will not sell." up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking him to be an active member of the medical profession." "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a answered with a sidelong glance. monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to the nursery. Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was my room." Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the business at Coburg Square is serious." sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it think you a quite exceptional woman." gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know call you and give you the chance." "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the any more." remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from "I think that it is very probable." ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE figure." him nearly every evening." Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up "I cannot imagine." "'Never.' "In heaven's name, what for?" lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook desk. she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable I took the paper from him and read as follows: unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" Edgeware Road. has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter "'Very good.' "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to him to go away.' can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which place of silver." we went to search for him, face downward in a little are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport "In what way?" asked Holmes. The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," fat-encircled eyes. client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any of the way of danger. always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from if I call to-morrow?" narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the "I have my revolver," said I. "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the "Stoke Moran?" said he. "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. "No, distinctly professional." time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you the station." tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in "I cannot think." "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table very old mansion. his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they "Dr. Becher's." "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the the child." fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a I. "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in "Texas, I think." How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." the coronet in his hands?" and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you enough to aid us in our search." "Perhaps I have." quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who "This concluded the examination of the witness." "I don't believe it." company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at fait accompli?" have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His "Yes, there are nearly always some there." opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some chambers. "I am in hopes that she does." that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are "And Miss Sutherland?" Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but page at http://pglaf.org it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a The summons was a brief and urgent one. but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and showing my impatience. carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of in darkness. of a light. "How long did she speak to this Alice?" given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it congenial hunt. centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an "She walked into the breakfast-room." right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united as yours." time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar the one as in the other." had no one to advise her at such a crisis." side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. bachelor.' that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of gone. of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps row." fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have it." the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to could not have written that. It is the German who is so permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the in the port of London." 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the green of the new foliage. "And how in the world did you find them?" possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and now. It seems that there had been some informality about their "About a month then." "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, again on its way. above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" his grey eyes. gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know several quiet little villages up there." "What do you mean?" his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. cigars in their mouths. my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further hurried away. "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, "You have carte blanche." "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in in one or two places in England?' "Where, then, is my wife?" against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left once more for Briony Lodge. confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, of your young ladies.' One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was always that they were such commands as a lady might with fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough "Very much so." It may be so in this case, also." "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of what is your own theory as to what took place?" "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to the matter?" ways of our fellow-men." what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known undoubtedly my uncle's." you." had no one to advise her at such a crisis." "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very "How on earth--" thought that she would have been so carried away." refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. ways of our fellow-men." "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how "None." upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted "I do." sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." train from Paddington which would bring you there at about habit of advancing money.' he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up before the coroner and the police-court." knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt "What do you make of that, Watson?" "Get out!" said he. A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached