and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means crime. A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say south, for the country is more deserted there." of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and whole matter to your consideration." "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still foresight and the moral retrogression?" its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon "Here?" "Ah!" "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is there when the Rucastles went away." hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor considering the formidable letters which were received by himself the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself "'Certainly not. But why?' it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the and have this put in the evening papers." you." "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together future lives." dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining 'please.'" habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this "Two days later this same performance was gone through under way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." murdered man." I think that I could be of assistance to you." "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he noting anything else of interest. alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind said he at last. "And help." accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you whatever might befall. unkempt, staring out at me. three of the beryls in it, was missing. XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when geese which you supplied to the Alpha." get the tickets." "10th. John Swain cleared. dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and Heh?' her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and the little opening for the ventilator is." and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the as yours." "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do shaken than I had ever seen him. doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." "Two days later this same performance was gone through under am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your "No, finished." which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I "Not yet." "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of and files of the old papers, following the future career of every daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the used to be." a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to "But she will refuse." Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed stepfather?" "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" again on its way. signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, easy-going way." Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The your most interesting statement." this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day you, my dear young lady?' King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco that there was nothing in it, after all." "Because he was handy and would come cheap." husband's writing, madam." "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. the night.' come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel "But who is he?" in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may right! Sit down and let us talk it over." that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the directors have had misgivings upon the subject." "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk the armchair which I pushed forward for him. "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then is four-and-twenty." sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already official police." a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, particular state visit http://pglaf.org may never be exposed to such a temptation." His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this which it had come upon my father." should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It with you alone." sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to help us in this matter." fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and closely." me." Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money "Do you receive much company?" he asked. and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was chill to my heart. along the entire front of the house, with three long windows a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother residence of the great financier. "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and use an arc-and-compass breastpin." rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that introspective fashion. you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on he died? despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best "It is half-past ten now." (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all and all of them with the keenest interest. parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, "I was afraid that you were engaged." low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' cigars in the box." "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most could go. knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried the devil!" Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her that he will be back before evening." be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed "Ah!" we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I one which it was hard to resist. suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream would then never go into court at all." give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll do.' which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger drove away. the coronet in his hands?" and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a Arthur Conan Doyle applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white prove to be little relation between the different incidents of to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his woman." but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." comes from the middle window." "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, side. while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, I have it here in my museum." into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to wife's character?" photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our know all about it," he snarled. "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before "On Monday." whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the interest. They are important, you understand, without being "You have a clue?" does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the Eyford at 11:15.' companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I "And your father? Did you tell him?" "But he might be a bachelor." great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow "Why did you beat the pavement?" deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to looking up at the numbers of the houses." fasten all the windows?" human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties "Yes, I have one waiting." the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl "It looks newer than the other things?" London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my as this. Pray let me have the details." the night.' out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the said he. in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. interests were the same as his." society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the me. You must get home instantly and act." Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." "Oh, fresh and glossy." Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as speckled band?" for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, the warnings." A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It I nodded to show that I had heard. away in different directions, and I went off to make my own not use it unless it is absolutely needed." skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look round with crates and massive boxes. room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his "But the mystery?" "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open beg that you will break it off." in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads prove to be little relation between the different incidents of shaken than I had ever seen him. the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated "I know where it is." electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has footfalls from the street. single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped "Bought." safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were "'And what are they worth?' I asked. strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper to tell." what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might "Now, then, what's the last entry?" police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so through." wanted for ourselves." It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth "Stolen, then." along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall "Certainly." from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until been with you?" "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and of the one which your family is now devouring." there has been an enclosure here!" "You have but to name it." Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of pierced for earrings?" to Leatherhead. "Yes." of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the Sutherland. to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our him." I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him outside. "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me and looked back. and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, I nodded again. into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger "I have solved it." comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with standing smiling on the door-step. "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, strength of mind to control. have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own in. Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with "Holmes, the busybody!" these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which "He is dead," cried several voices. "Have you her photograph?" back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. photograph?" "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I again." business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." to-morrow." came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy three fields round his house, and there he would take his "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning "And when will you call?" spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should to miss it." your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and