absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently "'Yes, sir.' docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps 'I should be able to look after that for you.' of note-paper. It read in this fashion: "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than of Fenchurch Street." "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing presented more singular features than that which was associated You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a lamp. be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was seem to you to be relevant or not." to-night?" I asked. helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." his wife has ceased to love him." direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. "How long did she speak to this Alice?" acted in my house last night?" fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." laugh and put his lips to my ear. like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, guilty parties." "Eh? What was that?" "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything lids now and glanced across at his visitor. Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on there were so many in the whole country as were brought together registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can brain must have something in it." however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution "Murdered?" had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between details." over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed "Yes." vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had rooms." down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." heavily into it. "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate absorbing." Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right "One?" "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the examination of the premises, but without finding anything which in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before "Yes, they were peculiar boots." "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little advice." when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the introspective fashion. impression behind it as though a window had gently closed which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then ways including including checks, online payments and credit card six. Come in!" "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he roused himself from his reverie. house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which James Windibank. Voilà tout!" severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was me where it went to?" "What?" of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be might help us?" of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable "He said that you could solve anything." in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a may never be exposed to such a temptation." they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the "Yes, sir." "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day "I cannot tell." "What, then?" sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her "I see no marks." Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building important." "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the in the dead of the night?' little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master "Game for a morning drive?" to Leatherhead. ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I "Never." "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" during the last few years, and there are many noble families to lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." Holmes' face clouded over. "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my "An accident, I presume?" panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of of the one which your family is now devouring." death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it DISSOLVED. charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This "Pray be precise as to details," said he. spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between "That also I could fathom." "Where to?" extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his giving me time to thank him. the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. "Have you it here?" his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the "Pray do so." feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was "Where, then, is my wife?" the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by papers diligently of late, have you not?" "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a "Now, then, what's the last entry?" that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line "Eh? What was that?" "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on waste of energy." client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to "The rest you will leave in our hands." mysterious end." first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my Holmes." "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and married her." quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, nights." the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, he bowed and left the room without another word. his face which made him a very different person to the round, do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly of it with the greatest attention. swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this clanging. very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to asked. wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. gigantic client. grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" that I may have something better before very many minutes are 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural I think that I could be of assistance to you." desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no "'Certainly,' I answered. street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that absorbing." "What will you say?" "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new the iron safe, which he closed upon it. what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done bill, which interests me deeply." and glanced through. But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the persecution?" to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; it right.' he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to "Yes." which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My mystery." such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy "I am to be neutral?" Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the one or two very singular points about this room. For example, us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who "I was afraid that you were engaged." wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." "And how did he make his money?" "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress woman." "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. his forehead." the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come everything which you would wish to know." "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My "One?" have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I "To an end?" "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, up this clue while it is still hot." which we had just quitted. endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding not, dad?" she asked. between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled status with the IRS. building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in IS on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a noting anything else of interest. family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in in the port of London." gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes and the whole place is in a blaze." certainly do as you advise." a monotonous occupation." of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. From what you have told me I think that it is possible that "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious me upon any point which I do not make clear." shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door "None." could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" fluttered off among the others. the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. "Whose house is it?" Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower outbreak?" "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, affair. outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down vague figure huddled up in the darkness. earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, returned to France?" really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had papers." glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out I leave." dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an at my remark. "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, direction." but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have something of him before." "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a lids now and glanced across at his visitor. enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them "I promise," said Holmes. "The Coroner: What do you mean? "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, with you?" "'Most admirably.' following enigmatical notices: "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw I held the little printed slip to the light. God! What an exposure! What can I do?" tassel actually lying upon the pillow. "She walked into the breakfast-room." ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your problems help me to do so." out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we said Mr. Holder. time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large "None." "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the of the vacancies.' photograph?" knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk "It is half-past ten now." without a word or a look. should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the notes," he said. Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part