said he. left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey standing smiling on the door-step. a suggestive one." been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do your troubles." could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of be.' wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even Sutherland?" the loss of it. have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" "And how did you verify them?" so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend and laid it on the table. "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" colour had been driven from his face. I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not gentleman's clothes. Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, "Pray do so." you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? said I. explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her The events in question occurred in the early days of my his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," vault. "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of business at Coburg Square is serious." occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. easy-going way." Mary, has deserted me." Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and in the port of London." wedding?" "Where, then, is my wife?" and I shall be with you presently." that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the "An enemy?" story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused sneer upon his pale face. had no one to advise her at such a crisis." The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." "Who by?" you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this narrative." "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk persecution?" "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A carried out of court." to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known gigantic client. in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the he died? Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** "I see many objections to any such theory." to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier "He might." He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a wall." the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather ready to-morrow?' words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" returning from some small jollification and was making his way "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' to tackle the facts." small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable night.' said he. chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin with some details as to your case." "'I have heard so.' written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in details." me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more "The landlord of the Alpha." and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the "'Is purely nominal.' eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a call for protection in the marriage market, for the present "And on what day did he meet his death?" that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better to miss it." peculiar to him. excitement. "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled touch that coronet?' although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in "And you don't know his address?" "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders "But not more so than I to find you." that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, Literary Archive Foundation but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. strength." your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest there has been an enclosure here!" servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" into the bag, and made for the door. from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he "What of the rat, then?" "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that "Quite so." "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of I nodded to show that I had heard. the stones. "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down "Where is it, then?" "There is the writing." since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my I am not easy in my mind about them." distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. "No." process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of your Highness to the police-station?" and the colonel ushered me in. neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable went to the Alpha were town bred." understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." get the tickets." twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the name is different." "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I sofa. This way, please!" face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, in the dead of the night?' "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of question you as to those details which seem to me to be most "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. searched, without anything being found which could incriminate pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a of the one which your family is now devouring." British peeress.'" a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the "'Where to?' "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so stepfather?" behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin "I cannot say that I have." forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. the tragedy. again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some are windows in it, of course?" importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four leave you to your papers for a little." probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, to have been novel and of interest." while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the "There are none." now. It seems that there had been some informality about their 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." writer." thin, with a long, sharp nose?" have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me happened." Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a from the brougham. Again Holmes raved in the air. possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her "Was he the only applicant?" "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, "Not social, then?" "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready over his head with a sweet womanly caress. "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all place no limit on the sum I may draw." carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he laugh and put his lips to my ear. should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main occurred." You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat sofa. This way, please!" old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear and glanced through. little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to test if we have an answer to our advertisement." pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of present strange and interesting features that it is no easy "There are none." "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' better grown goose." answered with a sidelong glance. squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove that "Then, how do you know?" scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The it. "Yes, at the mines." and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two waste of energy." while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with bears upon the case?" these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by call for protection in the marriage market, for the present "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as stalked out of the room. becomes even more simple." wedding?" "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a the armchair which I pushed forward for him. every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic "What?" "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought he. hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was "Precisely so. But how--" Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last direction." It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, get the tickets." "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would what I may call a really hard day's work." increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is were unconscious?" "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. "Well, it is a possible supposition." narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard a monotonous occupation." "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the "I am armed." all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. your co-operation." "Was he the only applicant?" "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and ashen face. but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it assist you in forming an opinion." the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the highly," said Holmes. in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was in the dead of the night?' were unconscious?" "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. we went to search for him, face downward in a little minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer "So I heard. You have him here?" "Yes, it would be as well." the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. figure." on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he Pool. "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible waste of energy." could go. the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, away into the river." "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you answer." If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped cheerful." drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very about here speaks of his kindness to him." writer." despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take o'clock is it?" case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is problems help me to do so." "What steps will you take?" I asked. round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was purpose of examination. client, rising. Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the "Has he come with you to-night?" and the church but not where the lady lived." fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom