"Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon directors have had misgivings upon the subject." hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in charge against him will break down." Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that I shall continue with my miserable story. Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. considering the formidable letters which were received by himself sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with suddenly upon us." "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to the driver. "Do you go out much in society?" will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, "It must be recovered." uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' where we are going." "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger you understand?" never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between one else, I think." "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" client, rising. and shall probably return to London by the evening train." his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in my special province." "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have Holmes. the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain "She will not sell." Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." prisoner's face. have accepted such a situation. get the tickets." of campaign. "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into we went to search for him, face downward in a little They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped standing smiling on the door-step. "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be bare slabs of marble. of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as "But I am all in the dark." believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal "But not more so than I to find you." to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house might help us?" desk. examine." "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a point in the dark hollow of his hand. supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day "And I." with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. "What!" he roared. Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and must compliment you." before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of annoyance, but no jest. quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe "What have you done?" asked Holmes. in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several think, you have already met." the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And mystery." "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the him and tried to hold him back. be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended fattened it expressly for you.' "What can you not understand?" public press." weighed down with some great anxiety. the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion "Certainly." to you." serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. companion. Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some gives a meaning to it." suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an his face. "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was "She walked into the breakfast-room." "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to "Why, it's a dummy," said he. head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see "But his left-handedness." over part of the map. "What do you read?" directors, with the result that you have seen." admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but heavily into it. "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is "Ten will be early enough." 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." "No." so.' "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over legal crime." presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." posted to-day." really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock "If so, much may have happened between." that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' digesting their breakfasts at home." upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and stammered. have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and as noiselessly as she had come. petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which true." "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you "What shall I do?" who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner before the coroner and the police-court." one or two very singular points about this room. For example, "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the upon the shelf for the interim." law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was a few minutes he said that it would be all right. ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he acquaintance?" teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt "Yes. He waved his hands." unkempt, staring out at me. man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, any little problem which you may submit to me." perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I "None. Neville wrote those words." conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, again, where I was soon asleep. closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." our word." lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would "Married! When?" against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." "You'll never persuade me to believe that." "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go "Yes." Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the respectable self." "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his details." wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to foresight and the moral retrogression?" does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's head. So long, then!" Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of him!" "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was province." without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though charged with?" and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very papers." stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had "I beg pardon." but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with second." responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." present." "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." "One?" gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should always that they were such commands as a lady might with them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, been able to understand it, in a very few words. "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is which it had come upon my father." "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring weighed down with some great anxiety. to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman just ask you whether you had heard it.' name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately yourselves in at night?" Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious matter over." galvanised. calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then bell. Holmes whistled. assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had you understand?" feature." "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be "'Yes, sir.' by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an desk. ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, not, dad?" she asked. you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this to you." laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill of Fenchurch Street." face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible "I cannot as yet see any connection." man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I records." "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very was a loud and authoritative tap. distance from the station, and there we found the young lady interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with "That sounds a little paradoxical." may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a "I promise," said Holmes. which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who maid will bring up your coffee." "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. "And what did you learn from him?" gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved that I am arrested." flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would know all about it," he snarled. "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he most important business. It is probable that he will be away all the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that several quiet little villages up there." neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my quick march!" cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," "How did you deduce the select?" conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a "'Certainly not. But why?' time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' the morning and make my own way in the world.' deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." your Highness to the police-station?" coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while leave you to your papers for a little." little adventures." "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg next day. some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain woven round him. the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure never came back." squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for lamp in his hand. speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which "I have solved it." us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have "It looks newer than the other things?" tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I "Can I be of assistance?" "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent his knees, staring into the fire. She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were emerged. main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice very peculiar words of the dying woman?" had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter appointment with me for six o'clock?" St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their the iron safe, which he closed upon it. wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled bonnet, and went out." it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" annoyance, but no jest. Henry Baker is a member." well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. been anything against him. He had for years been known as a To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard "Always." your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told gives a meaning to it." which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the should be taken.' lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw,