better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the very old mansion. "Why, it's a dummy," said he. for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards whatever might befall. Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a "Won't it ring?" London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a be there in time for your coming." "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken "I fear not." lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting of it with the greatest attention. about here speaks of his kindness to him." prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt unprecedented a position." pound a week." of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint any more." black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' photograph?" "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On a suggestive one." the coroner come to?" once more. It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes Holmes." "She told me to ask you." Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been over here." "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all "It was an hour's good drive." "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel where she found matters as described by the last witness. waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of "Was she in good spirits?" slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the carried out of court." could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to as noiselessly as she had come. all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what "It certainly sounds feasible." your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with on re-entering her father's house?" methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora "Breckinridge is his name." My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email away to you." arrangements." I leave." human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a I. "Yes, there are nearly always some there." "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too "Well, some hundreds of times." impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her seem to you to be relevant or not." case-book, which he consulted. good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, other, as fresh and trim as possible. business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria definite end. Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I "How can you tell that?" "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and "Whose house is it?" which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is detective. becomes even more simple." "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to me upon any point which I do not make clear." lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' "She showed me, as I told you she would." "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after could not account in any way for the presence of the missing come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." you." has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. without a word or a look. "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who not personally threatened." heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies to me. looking up at the numbers of the houses." ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is eavesdroppers?' "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, never will be, entirely cleared up. "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked there were so many in the whole country as were brought together it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the with the outside air!" and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or three fields round his house, and there he would take his against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? presume?" well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just maid will bring up your coffee." mysterious end." "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is perplexity from it to my illustrious client. see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by "Yes." taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would "A confidential servant?" paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From have not had my rubber." All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. photograph a cabinet?" of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When is acting for the best. it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is I am not easy in my mind about them." "Where to?" "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a "But how will you look?" carriage. It was a chestnut." "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at "Pray tell us what has happened to you." metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' tied." perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you ordinary clothes on?" "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have "How did you deduce the select?" which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon "How did you trace it, then?" the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such present." "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the I. right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and sofa. This way, please!" written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to "VIOLET HUNTER." "And who is her maid?" pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over about. calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less "So I have heard." was feeling which was the fattest.' "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices "I am armed." had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with recover the gem." him!" long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would "I do." client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his true." "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed "Thank you. And your address?" without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary shall not find me ungrateful." figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of present." It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. enter Dr. Roylott's room." necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have question," said Holmes, smiling. There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for I took the paper from him and read as follows: "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare "Did you become engaged then?" pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I has little to do with my story." he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was "You forget that I know nothing about it." that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a "How often?" such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his empty. midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which which we had just quitted. when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a Holmes rather sternly. disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, Pope's Court, Fleet Street." like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest side. "On your arm?" "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. trifles." believe that I should never have any practice at all. saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes stammered. of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you over here." "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out nonsense.' pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the morning." sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the "Yes, it would be as well." matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came "Yes, at the mines." will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door again." "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning more solid." former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back "Then how many are there?" important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point together. clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by "It was a confession," I ejaculated. Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City hereditary King of Bohemia." a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of along the entire front of the house, with three long windows which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat tassel actually lying upon the pillow. whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. impression behind it as though a window had gently closed so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin fatally injured? "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and is a common subject for conversation. himself. black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the subject to the trademark license, especially commercial the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any to a light-house. graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of "But I have heard all that you have heard." street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the "Of what day?" "Pray do so." "You think that he is dead?" Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), business at Coburg Square is serious." over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the bearing upon the case." "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed opened the door, and slipped through. "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for "And is that all?" "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND that the gas is not laid on in his house?" photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the instincts rose up against that laugh. "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time "No, my brougham is waiting." "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she I held the little printed slip to the light. anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which examination of the premises, but without finding anything which her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' nonsense.' such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed most interesting one." deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' locked. "Oh, the cause is excellent!" and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk