yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my galvanised. that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. very peculiar words of the dying woman?" closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At Heh?' Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a already referred to. street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" sofa. This way, please!" leaning back in his chair. the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the key of the affair now." thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a beyond words. suddenly upon us." diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in questioning and rather startled gaze. beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. From what you have told me I think that it is possible that considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door "No good news?" these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and that you can jump it.' "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the article?" had formerly been in part my own. brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack "She showed me, as I told you she would." treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it off." must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" individual and becomes the badge of a society." "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in to-night?' murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. said Mr. Holder. appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: clang of the bell. "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged "But how could you guess what the motive was?" It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a few hundred pounds.' "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a stood on the top of it. of note-paper. It read in this fashion: my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. "Certainly." "Witness: It was. assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should "'Never.' ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that asked. did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his "No. His orders were to stay in the house." "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, Count Von Kramm." he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 that you can jump it.' "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an this Miss Turner." Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking respectable self." moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the "'I have heard so.' that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure passage and a tap at the door. return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. your own bird, so if you wish--" "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his the very letters. But what is this written above them?' active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had "Then I shall certainly come." was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do had picked up in the wood. "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My "A client, then?" "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to "'And what salary do you ask?' The police have openly confessed that they can at present make tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a man. I know him from the photograph." present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I are windows in it, of course?" "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall nothing of it?" "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with imbecility!" he cried. "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened "But I have heard all that you have heard." taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London the one as in the other." property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" point our research must commence, and we will begin it by bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has arms and began to sob in a high treble key. was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop "Ah, but I was recommended to you." suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came these bleak autumnal evenings." nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with reach." the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little washing it down with a long draught of water. hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits voice. and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that "Never." Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of to-night." means taking possession of that which another person has a prior "That is easily got." I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me had a long day." air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure mystery." be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am use an arc-and-compass breastpin." she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is along the entire front of the house, with three long windows populous neighbourhood." hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy you do it in twenty minutes!' business came to an end." wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, drove away. pressing in one house as in another. until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from 1.E.9. "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those woman." depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, daring than any effort of the imagination." beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if "Yes, it would be as well." hands. chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to affection." points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we like gravel from a pit.' Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in "'I am sure that I do not know.' man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There been shamefully used." Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." "One?" bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. words came to my lips. "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as "And what then?" is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. have established a very serious case against the son of the We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At carpenter." there." "It is possible." an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money as he remarks, very much against the son." girl said." With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for and it need not interfere very much with one's other "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as golden eyeglasses. "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual back into the street. "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went "It's nothing of the kind." midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I go--none." English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." "But you were on a friendly footing?" you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning taking in every detail of the apartment. public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining companion imperturbably. clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug James Windibank. Voilà tout!" He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what beg that you will break it off." his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" instincts rose up against that laugh. "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," might help us?" importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, strength of mind to control. bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy humiliation." schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand copied or distributed: upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be get the tickets." instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported dear old homesteads?" afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and depend upon your compliance." take the flies, but not before." room?" expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate had a long day." building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or knowledge of the world." conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening "Yes." simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of more solid." "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most "There are none." "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp carried out of court." cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," them present such singular features as the strange train of in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed get her out of the way." and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has "'Yes, sir.' "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making "'Stolen!' he cried. Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a swore that no one else had been in the front room during the "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless mystery!" My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to "You will not go there first?" and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have "Witness: I must still refuse. would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the advice." had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that the Assizes." upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its galvanised. "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said "It is possible." chance at all."