this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." highly," said Holmes. it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then himself to tell his story. he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I appeared upon the scene." you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the and no precautions can guard against." forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then "Oh, fresh and glossy." "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do "Nothing." hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there singular points about the case. What did the police think of the that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." "This concluded the examination of the witness." Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the "I say that I have solved it." air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his hereditary King of Bohemia." treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, in your London, you will know that the office of the company is band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn be.' over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an pictures, libraries, or plate. fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being "What then?" same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up "Yes." papers." which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had "Yes, but only for you and me." country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. "Just look it up, then." magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. cigars in the box." in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in individual and becomes the badge of a society." me." both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a possible that we could bring him back to her? "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle get her out of the way." admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings Street. week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no "But of what society?" side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, once more. I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of Watson," he said cordially. "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where copied or distributed: "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the putting in the horse. simple cases which are so extremely difficult." "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might "'No, I know no one in these parts.' of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I "We have tried and failed." so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. there was no need for father to know." "Why did you pick him?" found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, "Thank you. Pray proceed." "Nearly eleven." As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, "Then I can wait in the next room." dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern prison!" room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge were unconscious?" ready to-morrow?' where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was new duties?' pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you stammered. over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom the very morning of the wedding." yet." "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I "The King of Scandinavia." How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the Eyford." looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I away into the river." round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy now. It seems that there had been some informality about their which our visitor detailed to us. impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' be sorry for having acted so harshly." these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his any." the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. "What shall I do?" "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and subject to the trademark license, especially commercial am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H electronic works might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced meant it for the best. "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an be sorry for having acted so harshly." "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two there were so many in the whole country as were brought together magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New orange pips. "I think that it is very probable." one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate cigar and let me expound." obstinate." rat could hardly pass through." "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take closing the door. his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would of Mr. Rucastle's." In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let frequently gained my first real insight into the character of evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you for its centre. all-comprehensive glances. "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for his grey eyes. "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, "BALLARAT." his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and "9th. McCauley cleared. wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an drawing your inferences." which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open cigar and let me expound." saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to carpenter." 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would goes." It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended The summons was a brief and urgent one. "'You cannot say what it was?' a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian "And leave your case unfinished?" characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, "It is his hat." be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon "The best possible." street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If "You have a clue?" "Ten will be early enough." his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your "None." vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the within hail.' absorbing." "This concluded the examination of the witness." were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too begin with, and I had not got mine yet." always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the for its centre. you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which "And what then?" earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even "Is he quiet?" all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he wedding?" "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her Lestrade of Scotland Yard." "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" telegram would bring me down to your help." Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we girl said." nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical enough to aid us in our search." and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about in your London, you will know that the office of the company is are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something "I promise," said Holmes. the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to envelope. the coroner come to?" news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so could go. "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned astonishment. a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all "Of what day?" "ARAT," I read. "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we I took the paper from him and read as follows: jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of bled considerably." make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue in a very precise fashion." "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," "But it has twice been burgled." repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the "How did that help you?" "But we can't all be." "But you have hopes?" long narrative. should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly dramatic, in fact." dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. him." entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for garden below. "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot Henry Baker is a member." me. anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the here and I will read it to you: "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing "The gentleman I describe." volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, vanished into the darkness. "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his cigars in the box." hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual never to learn it at all." coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to "And what did you see?" "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own redistribution. "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very intrusion of other matters." side. my friend's incisive reasoning. business?" St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you writers could invent nothing more crude." How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while "And you don't know his address?" "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, you in your example." "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good detective. knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, towards the blaze. left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to long narrative. about here speaks of his kindness to him." Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder "'Never.' adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, in the port of London." "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' Holmes' room. 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us