LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE "I do." and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose Lestrade of Scotland Yard." ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS and wait." "It's nothing of the kind." seen the man in the road." Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the "Always." hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was information in his hands the value of which he did not himself laugh and put his lips to my ear. to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect "Yes?" been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible at a side door. will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a there when the Rucastles went away." the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of "I don't believe it." for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the started for the Temple to see my husband. his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal "'Where to?' Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been "She will not sell." the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand reach." remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all American. Then who could this American be, and why should he few hundred pounds.' stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, "No, finished." evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the and have this put in the evening papers." "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given acquaintance?" house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his "And why?" fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: "To an English lawyer named Norton." way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," "Why? What do you mean?" eat it." course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that kind enough to tell me what I should do." King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, "Will you bet, then?" out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND best detective that ever lived. were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but mysterious business." Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. tension within him. "How often?" our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I question. step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a suspect him." obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, "In heaven's name, what for?" unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. "'Yes, sir.' saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of several quiet little villages up there." "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman Serpentine Avenue. manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it room. which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions remarked. "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my "Pray do so." "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun miles off. centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I questionable one." "It surprised me." "'How far from the body?' it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, "'Oh, no.' reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," Stoke Moran." present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your "BALLARAT." exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; "'Which dealer's?' ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they Pool. a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to a monotonous occupation." "'You cannot say what it was?' and files of the old papers, following the future career of every trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in "And the cigar-holder?" bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to might help us?" of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, "Dark enough and sinister enough." assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom mysterious end." erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us business." matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is front of me. enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." will not take me long to tell. should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and dear old homesteads?" "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what posted to-day." events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. "He slept on the premises." The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He true." Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms unclasping of his long thin hands. "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk "Yes, from Horsham." The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It appeal." the general public were present, then?" "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he relief. to go into your room and bar your shutters?" tassel actually lying upon the pillow. grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out Project Gutenberg-tm works. papers diligently of late, have you not?" into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat to where he stood hid behind the curtain. watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual returning from some small jollification and was making his way I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. "Witness: I must still refuse. brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, considering the formidable letters which were received by himself of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled speckled band?" upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be gives a meaning to it." carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked James Windibank. Voilà tout!" There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that there has been an enclosure here!" were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom "'Is 4 pounds a week.' particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and I took the paper from him and read as follows: adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the me. all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" the coronet in his hands?" he. firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away is now desirous of getting those letters back." The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a business?" Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money "My Mary? Impossible!" carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the habit of advancing money.' from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent "Where did you address your letters, then?" suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed him!" Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an "Then he might have called to you?" imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I "'A dozen yards or so.' than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to "He said that you could solve anything." refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great "That is easily got." I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and "Game for a morning drive?" "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." question," said Holmes, smiling. for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight been shamefully used." had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm that before taking the final step I should like to submit the you want, then?' the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on stammered. without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence sneer upon his pale face. Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature horse could go." robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper The note was undated, and without either signature or address. right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a shall not find me ungrateful." "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action "He is still with you, I presume?" the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out into her hand at the door and which lured her within their details." with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what overpowering excitement and concern. it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. congratulate you again." silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at the stable lane now." "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could it." when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a "Then how many are there?" the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and "Won't it ring?" open." room?" that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, "At the wedding breakfast." which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He to that open window." money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to have an American origin." "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before several quiet little villages up there." vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." him nearly every evening." Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the province." one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to there were one or two details which were new to me. But the beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." humiliation." when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! him to be an active member of the medical profession." "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a friend's singular character. not interfere, come what may. You understand?" "But you have hopes?" good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his 'I should be able to look after that for you.' hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish "No?" figure." "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. "It certainly sounds feasible." "Certainly." there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring "Yesterday." A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an bled considerably." me. You must get home instantly and act." "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. interests were the same as his." "'Not at all. I only doubt--' stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?"