"On your arm?" autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out made him keep the appointment." which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or eat it." presented more singular features than that which was associated dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her suggested at once that there must be a communication between the "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. retorted upon me, and I on you." "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be "Deserted you?" were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I "Oh, fresh and glossy." out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. look upon these things in a different way." humiliation." your most interesting statement." business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and out." my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. look dissatisfied." focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock "He disappeared so suddenly." It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. laugh and put his lips to my ear. which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal Sutherland?" Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say hereditary King of Bohemia." "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes to a light-house. Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for empty. comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be that you saw all that I did." A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. hand, madam?" "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, assist you in forming an opinion." the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he me. "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has himself in a perplexing position. "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and back into the street. America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." "You have a clue?" "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be round with crates and massive boxes. said he. I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." "Where to?" in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves cup of tea. "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can brought there to personate someone, and the real person is "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, unprecedented a position." hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished success. "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning to-night?" I asked. hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation "From his hat?" "Yes, I have one waiting." waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a he died? "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar spark where all is dark to me." his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge "And how?" "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can front of me. "'Tell me all about it,' said I. obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. despaired of." "No." "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." in his power. national property. I was determined that the law should have its and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out for its centre. the station." I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I "Entirely." living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the never to learn it at all." Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become straightened it out again. "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and ordinary clothes on?" it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an were unconscious?" money should be paid at once.' self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered the so-precious time, but come!' jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. But Holmes shook his head gravely. case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are "A confidential servant?" "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some with the outside air!" black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that the Friday. Was it to be in church?" "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in seem to you to be relevant or not." a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon "And I to find an enemy." reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first "A call for help, you thought?" knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the future lives." his huge brown hands. and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to strong and stiff." Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes could not have written that. It is the German who is so conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, "He disappeared so suddenly." which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any The King stared at him in amazement. protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was "You horrify me." quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, "Of what day?" she to prove their authenticity?" "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a down in his armchair and closing his eyes. Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." way in everything. half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he late." and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the during the last few years, and there are many noble families to established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near place of silver." opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one like gravel from a pit.' "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can "Murdered?" Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either directors, with the result that you have seen." were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have not within a twentieth part of the market price." seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for question," said Holmes, smiling. some place of shelter and let the county police know what has down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The the matter?" his grey eyes. "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a companion imperturbably. plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, nothing with him." thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up voice, changing her seat as requested. one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' "Ah!" at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." John Swain, of St. Augustine. exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most one which it was hard to resist. an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." tell him that I know him to be innocent." be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions so far?" left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only Arthur Conan Doyle given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was client, rising. present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! "Where to?" Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able of this gang." evidence," I remarked. "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon in. scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife breakfast?" had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a past. and glanced through. "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will suspect him." his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran "No sign of it?" happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from "You know me, then?" For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was asked. unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the for and were ordered to this address. thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in next day. "Yes, sir." investigation." do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have "How on earth--" "'What would be the hours?' I asked. "Awake, Watson?" he asked. "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is "I am sure." of fine shops and stately business premises that they really it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the true." corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." "But she could not love him." matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." "That is also quite modern," said the lady. "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, "Yes." "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and "What do you mean?" the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he "Not yet." you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We been able to understand it, in a very few words. And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean "Then what has happened to him?" examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that o'clock is it?" across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The most interesting one." "I beg pardon." that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for "Dark enough and sinister enough." and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue just ask you whether you had heard it.' returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear geese which you supplied to the Alpha." continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria upon the shelf for the interim." "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his