among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six country, and eventually married, without anyone having a of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by "In what way?" asked Holmes. on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more someone who had been in Australia." "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. fait accompli?" wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an dramatic, in fact." Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are started for the Temple to see my husband. "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley noting anything else of interest. sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't ago." There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were "Certainly." to-night's adventure." myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a the matter?" at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." a very grave face. of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my lost his Christmas dinner." A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six sufficient punishment." pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the "Then I shall certainly come." have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the the warnings." seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come sound at heart." "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have have been better. It is all right." such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp advice." "'Where could I find him?' thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of instincts rose up against that laugh. case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." there were so many in the whole country as were brought together always that they were such commands as a lady might with It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the 1.F. had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a constraint." pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, "That is not always so easy." grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder know all about it," he snarled. the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a "The murder was done with it." The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers "Yes." He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which vanished into the darkness. cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven "Certainly, madam." "9th. McCauley cleared. on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll the one as in the other." offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, "Imitated." hurried by. my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said http://gutenberg.net/license). dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads thirty. fluttered off among the others. "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a "Then, how do you know?" It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out with the outside air!" one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" open." you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the "Yes, that is the Crown." again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical and all of them with the keenest interest. that "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then rose-bushes. to a light-house. "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far said I. make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very of." train.' loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began "I will, Miss Turner." "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every "And it is--" had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have "Ah, but I was recommended to you." I shall continue with my miserable story. was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their ways including including checks, online payments and credit card at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank burst out into a roar of laughter. convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we go back?" "It is solved." "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had here and I will read it to you: but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On States. backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and were wasted." so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were newspaper selections." the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in very old mansion. parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it envelope. power." Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and points in connection with it which never have been, and probably of a light. inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a "Who was the criminal, then?" II. Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so at once, for I have only half an hour." upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit your equipment. keep the flames under. American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; if she died from some sudden fright." Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the take the flies, but not before." "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as was once confined in the cab my mission was practically granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to for the market.' future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, goes." union?" people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I arrangements." It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever "Pray do so." persecution?" who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and "'You doubt its value?' he asked. clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the during the last few years, and there are many noble families to before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. "What is it, then--a fire?" tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest in the dead of the night?' "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the "What! a murderous attack?" "Upon what point?" their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been congenial hunt. he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." these bleak autumnal evenings." beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able locked. had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was are, I think, all that we need." opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? written. that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable "She walked into the breakfast-room." "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness cigar and let me expound." SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is "I have my revolver," said I. instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, were wasted." afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on what do you think they found in the pockets?" that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after guilty parties." "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black cheerful." open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me get the tickets." flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend "In which, sir?" stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away his huge brown hands. detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of "That is unusual in a young girl." "Really! You surprise me." "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right The King stared at him in amazement. tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You "Why did you beat the pavement?" unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. straighten it?" into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger "'What would be the hours?' I asked. Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and waste of energy." done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six "An enemy?" and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of Leadenhall Street--and--" had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to "I think that it is very probable." have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the everything which you would wish to know." "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very "So I have heard." "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly fishes. journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a the running down." "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than was not a bird to be seen there. "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold Where does the thing come from?' Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular not interfere, come what may. You understand?" smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was "In San Francisco, a year ago." cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of knowledge of the world." to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be congratulate you again." and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can "None." "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained province." my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed which our visitor detailed to us. weapon." All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the weigh very heavily upon my conscience." papers on the sundial.'" "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's subject to the trademark license, especially commercial 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a presume?" have had none more fantastic than this." might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by be.' '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. "'Is 4 pounds a week.' is acting for the best. "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow corner of the building. would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation only touch the interest." "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that posted to-day." why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had