system of imprisonment?" will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, one's self under obligations.' "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive flock.' petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the point our research must commence, and we will begin it by these bleak autumnal evenings." you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better "Yes?" that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him minor matters until to-morrow." side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more was keenly on my guard against him. lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from "You have a clue?" and the colonel ushered me in. "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that "And did you observe any change in her then?" relief. an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just "What have you to say now?" glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what "Come in!" said he. It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the happened." "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated side. that there was nothing in it, after all." staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange your Highness to the police-station?" o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying and effective." have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay "'Why that?' I asks. have I gained?" would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a Holmes. saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before "Not him." "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. indeed happy." he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he hard-headed British jury." "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the right! Sit down and let us talk it over." sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily galvanised. pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea "That is also quite modern," said the lady. records." very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and enter into my head. "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could God! What an exposure! What can I do?" studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. "What do you mean?" beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, triumphant cloud from his cigarette. office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I occupations.' It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and Again Holmes raved in the air. pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at "I think that it is very probable." "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at obstinate." "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate tell me that you intended to go into harness." "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we "But to whom?" house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never hereditary King of Bohemia." outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away not fit the lock." and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a "And what did you see?" her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she "When did she vanish, then?" his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." "At half-wages, in fact." About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil "Yes, certainly." will find little credit to be gained out of this case." "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to to you." mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. recover the gem." came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a and prosperity to your house. Good-night." "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, photograph?" corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, past. started for the Temple to see my husband. much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a "By no means." Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this you, my dear young lady?' standing smiling on the door-step. between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was "You'll never persuade me to believe that." plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then outsides of the windows. "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already have been better. It is all right." leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The new duties?' least a fellow-countryman. like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to is entirely a question of barometric pressure." see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I "But who is he?" It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as is acting for the best. wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? closely." "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it your room." tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the American. Then who could this American be, and why should he "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were an introduction to him?" "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied "How do you know, then?" It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in vault. cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, stammered. sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a should be taken.' depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and business came to an end." "The Coroner: What do you mean? afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite him." however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I trying to your nerves." "He slept on the premises." James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about everything which you would wish to know." events, Mr. Windibank!" grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the to a light-house. upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying "To the police?" while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to some mystery and the punishment of some crime." the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat "From his hat?" "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious "I am to be neutral?" seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a outside. the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of she has been waylaid. There has been no result." Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am strength in the others." "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they "And how in the world did you find them?" unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable it." problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the and inquire as to the address." loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce towards the blaze. upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the in the hope of finding them." wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal footfalls from the street. the matter." The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His experiences." widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the "And the cigar-holder?" The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit which it had come upon my father." "Nothing?" number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards thin legs towards the fire. give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would Holmes' room. search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about hurried by. it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk notes," he said. either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter his cane at the bell-pull. which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks there when the Rucastles went away." did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith think that any burglar could have done. was used.' "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and most interesting one." of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I characteristics, but those are the more obvious." glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and you." got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and said he. walking." were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the "What steps will you take?" I asked. wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. the running down." been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very hour?' He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for never will be, entirely cleared up. have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must "Very much so." passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On the driver. "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal redistribution. "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to "Never." "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further to arrive at through this?" "No, I had a dozen." "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had to tell." Holmes. "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, characteristics, but those are the more obvious." dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? "The decline of his fortunes, then?" over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by Arthur Conan Doyle to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly "You know me, then?" a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and than was visible to me." of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where "9th. McCauley cleared. to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the business." "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away http://gutenberg.net/license). home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very "Yes." we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was