his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he for and were ordered to this address. death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 *** START: FULL LICENSE *** enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant noting anything else of interest. expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down "What do you make of that, Watson?" so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked "Not him." chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these "'Yes, it was gone.' "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. situation." This is what he says: Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank morning." They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which habit of advancing money.' It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really them?" You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded situation." your co-operation." and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were "I came to find a friend." the best of training." business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. village inn over there?" moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, "'Then let me do so?' including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and his wife has ceased to love him." of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about to arrive at through this?" "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to "On Monday." nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many his cane at the bell-pull. man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle prisoner's face. enter into my head. jewels which you have stolen?' "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, "You have carte blanche." "Always." every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings papers on the sundial.'" it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put call for it in person on Monday morning.' planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new this unhappy family?" method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, before, for it was considerably after midnight. correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we characteristics, but those are the more obvious." spare." "Have you it here?" hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the desk. on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. most interesting one." cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At presented which may be striking and bizarre without being was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most "'About the same.' interests were the same as his." round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. to-night." public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature "None." Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." "On Monday." one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he there were one or two details which were new to me. But the at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. the room while you explain this matter?" Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, You want to know what became of those geese?" which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond "You will not go there first?" grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I before the coroner and the police-court." "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and a little more before I quite committed myself. therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime a room. with the outside air!" "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, neither fascinating nor artistic." the inquest, and which are worth considering." "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the made his money." some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. entirely lost his self-respect." twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked there has been an enclosure here!" tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From "I have a cab outside." gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the other lovers by making love himself." inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the the stable lane now." roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up of this gang." she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed ready to-morrow?' "Absolutely?" wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our maiden herself was most instructive." "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may there were one or two details which were new to me. But the of campaign. "Nothing." about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. remarked. as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." to-night's adventure." Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask room had already been engaged for us. Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed lost his Christmas dinner." "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that some place of shelter and let the county police know what has "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. "Who by?" learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been you?' first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There rooms." opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. outside." had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge "But your client--" "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella "'Yes.' case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, Count Von Kramm." "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up enough to aid us in our search." dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is manager. hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the child?' entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for legal crime." He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one spare." conversation I have gathered that they have been married about "Nearly eleven." bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round "How did you trace it, then?" my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, wanted for ourselves." "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless "Breckinridge is his name." of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who "Where to?" lectures into a series of tales." "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we newspaper selections." "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during "I saw her in conversation with her maid." are, and they are waiting for us." 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest out." jewels which you have stolen?' "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger prisoner's face. "And why in hopes?" fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, in a friendly supper." friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that sooner or later she must fall a victim. not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant the armchair which I pushed forward for him. who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable question," said Holmes, smiling. the date of his supposed suicide." children over to America with him, so that I found myself without had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the "How did he come?" upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, next day. "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have himself to tell his story. your sleep?' "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of least a most suspicious remark." "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his details." the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my "And how in the world did you find them?" Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to business at Coburg Square is serious." the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But vanished into the darkness. among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond silent! Oh, he will be silent!' "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies "I think that I had better go, Holmes." compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a of Mr. Rucastle's." there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the your billet.' client, rising. in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, thin, with a long, sharp nose?" the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; nothing with him." cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let your only hope of safety." police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the "You heard nothing yourself last night?" "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic at a side door. "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, you." Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done "'No, I know no one in these parts.' you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards national property. I was determined that the law should have its heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold go--none." "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years you, my dear young lady?' "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. was keenly on my guard against him. "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for do." were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to to arrive at through this?" "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." "9th. McCauley cleared. American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." 1.F. have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon and inquire as to the address." tapping his fingers upon the table. which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most outbreak?" It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of some mystery and the punishment of some crime." deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has thirty. I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your the little opening for the ventilator is." trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be the best of training." It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I "None." Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the "Indeed! Whose, then?" means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the point our research must commence, and we will begin it by more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" companion imperturbably. know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." photograph?" had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy Clair, of Lee." something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; the ceiling. "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my the address that was given us in the advertisement. once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you but preventing her from injuring another. "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. window when the police appeared." Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is important." left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only crackling voice. "May I see it?" you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." situation." been anything against him. He had for years been known as a profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily to me. Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there some water from a caraffe. Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an foot. "'Entirely.' as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. developed." emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' intrusion of other matters." took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an may have an influence upon European history." "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the carriage. It was a chestnut." get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that who was a member of your goose club." "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done once more to my work. kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any not use it unless it is absolutely needed." without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.'