house for five minutes.' affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one the bottom.' action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with he bowed and left the room without another word. penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. 1.F. excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my opened the door, and slipped through. over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged I nodded again. that you wished to speak to me?' "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began "But the mystery?" cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then "'There is a drive, then?' carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. "And your mother is alive?" perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I "How long did she speak to this Alice?" "BALLARAT." to Leatherhead. India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right "Yes, certainly." of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of could gather together that I was able to avert another public room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land "My photograph." would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen test if we have an answer to our advertisement." keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on begun to whiten, even as mine has." question," said Holmes, smiling. or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might again before evening." have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, have established a very serious case against the son of the leaning back in his chair. his face which made him a very different person to the round, of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it "What?" "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than "And why?" intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of quickly through a disagreeable task. hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position "What then?" "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend "How many? I don't know." "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and DAMAGE. "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man public press." fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for read it out to me." will be renamed. "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. "Yes, that is the Crown." them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an or other trace. But how on earth--" warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an Surrey." disturbance in my wife." terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own "The doctor?" instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my you do it in twenty minutes!' point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, "Nothing?" whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the "She told me to ask you." one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he sound at heart." have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been wall." earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if the stones. very old mansion. said I. annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We the very morning of the wedding." think that he is innocent?" disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy matter over." "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done will he say when he returns?" return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less tear off another piece?' Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy his fortune, and I went back to pa. past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." "Then I can wait in the next room." at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's conversation I have gathered that they have been married about for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for "Perhaps we may make them less so." play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened "Very much so." "I am in hopes that she does." to have that photograph." whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but "'You cannot say what it was?' road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone some place of shelter and let the county police know what has her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and "I am in hopes that she does." charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated "It surprised me." there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was "What then?" had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you bare slabs of marble. Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove one which it was hard to resist. business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong happened." "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the and capable of preserving a secret.' he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to this remarkable episode. it. "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I "'And what salary do you ask?' thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk begin with, and I had not got mine yet." "The doctor?" skylight. frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every criminal. We have already had experience of such." chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over conclusions. half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave province." brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his of Mr. Rucastle's." but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." "And leave your case unfinished?" sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came his fortune, and I went back to pa. made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a so.' stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. "Well, it is a possible supposition." grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. "In heaven's name, what for?" eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of hurried by. "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we suggested at once that there must be a communication between the woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be "Her father is very rich?" from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now dear old homesteads?" "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to "'Most admirably.' which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, from the brougham. credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. "And what then?" upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such recall any case within my experience which looked at the first you." "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. she might be summoned. "You have compromised yourself seriously." something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' people in all walks of life. about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was populous neighbourhood." the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, lids now and glanced across at his visitor. have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet a good hundred miles off by now." granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other go--none." that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no too. "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of behind me. correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. leaning back in his chair. zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too other lovers by making love himself." seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for during the last few years, and there are many noble families to the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the "He is dead," cried several voices. unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There "Why did you pick him?" opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. do you make of it all?" Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very corner of the building. I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, in him." "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our "Have you her photograph?" rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner Literary Archive Foundation "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the "It is possible." more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. light and attacked it." felt?" business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in garden below. bed dies. Does not that strike you?" leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no have an American origin." in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the you understand?" "Which are?" "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, "'Certainly not.' during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his lost nothing by them." in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all you." "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for went to the Alpha were town bred." bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily before the coroner and the police-court." vanished into the darkness. "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having with her." very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice said Mr. Holder. "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless "I have a cab outside." opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the developed." there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty "This photograph!" be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two "What I expected to see." weighed down with some great anxiety. see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may forehead. lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a passage and a tap at the door. "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow lectures into a series of tales." "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and him, that man would not have given me such complete information be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went again." remarked. "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, be there in time for your coming." thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." own family. pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very promised to bring home. "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice "I have seen the police." are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others "Nor running a chance of arrest?" analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal upon an income of about 60 pounds." be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some October 9, 1890. some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court