"Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I she to prove their authenticity?" across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing "What are they?" "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew fluttered off among the others. "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my nights." "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to habit of advancing money.' There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the outside." "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing "Never." in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you "In San Francisco, a year ago." diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous outbreak?" I approached. I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in "But not more so than I to find you." mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in one or two very singular points about this room. For example, "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" impression behind it as though a window had gently closed clang of the bell. time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an wall." "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. "Will you go?" Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes results." "Only as much as we can deduce." finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet "Oh, yes, easily." own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and said I. frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." been lifted and conveyed somewhere." "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly "Yes, from Horsham." heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet as noiselessly as she had come. whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and experiences." he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly trifles." wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong "Then he might have called to you?" view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. Foundation bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." "And the murderer?" shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! "On Monday." these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was was not a bird to be seen there. and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the pressing in one house as in another. "I will get her to show me." as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of companion quietly. "Absolutely?" "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and said he, "my real name is James Ryder." people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it have had none more fantastic than this." "And from a noble client?" Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable said he. "Nor running a chance of arrest?" annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another "ARAT," I read. He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the "And how in the world did you find them?" maid will bring up your coffee." streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before enter Dr. Roylott's room." it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we one of them." The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. "He might." only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or "He is still with you, I presume?" "Nearly eleven." he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said if she died from some sudden fright." rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting "Absolutely none." caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood not as remarkable as your advertisement." his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his deduce something from that?" rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 charge against him will break down." Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be "My dear Holmes!" was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own window when the police appeared." upon an income of about 60 pounds." police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you maid will bring up your coffee." manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her is worth.' "No. His orders were to stay in the house." sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." "By train from Waterloo." time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do from you?" excitement. the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from in his hands." "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his "And the cigar-holder?" Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our "To an English lawyer named Norton." of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about "But his left-handedness." "My Mary? Impossible!" good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy observed. Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the "I never have." Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are "How about poison?" "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old "It is true that I have been generally successful." Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., "'I have heard so.' refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. directors have had misgivings upon the subject." brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you to-morrow." the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged foresight and the moral retrogression?" battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our next day. fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If third from London." "By train from Waterloo." scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting down from London to inquire more deeply into it." "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the chambers. that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek amused." people in all walks of life. "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the "But he might be a bachelor." "Which are?" brandy and water within his reach. "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it more terrible than the truth. all that?" "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." this remarkable episode. when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable which should have the effect of calling the attention of the reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: forecastle of an emigrant ship. "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. is entirely a question of barometric pressure." "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back fishes. blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and "Won't it ring?" sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went to some other building. hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal the loss of it. "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, appointment with me for six o'clock?" He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking "'And the work?' absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a breakfast?" "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little "'Stolen!' he cried. usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. "You have the photograph?" it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. I held the little printed slip to the light. "Certainly, madam." that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him there were so many in the whole country as were brought together "Yesterday." "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the "Dark enough and sinister enough." you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as were unconscious?" About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite "And I." case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and "Did you observe the colour?" Lee, in the county of Kent." 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in like that before?" not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend "Yes, the wine-cellar." above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know the side-table." they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and the coronet in his hands?" headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': "Ah!" 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a good-night and bustled off upon her way. morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at Watson," he said cordially. "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed she might be summoned. "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two face and glided from the room. corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. just called myself is not exactly my own." nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more "How did he come?" not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your "Pray tell us what has happened to you." into the room. that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and she has been waylaid. There has been no result." the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but present strange and interesting features that it is no easy that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a frequently gained my first real insight into the character of Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a Lee, in the county of Kent." only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." up this clue while it is still hot." twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me awkward doing business with an alias." of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning "You will not go there first?" had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not had this final quarrel? naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. McCarthy's innocence. all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would