"On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me cause to be." the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" "You forget that I know nothing about it." vague figure huddled up in the darkness. cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, little trying to do so much typewriting?" we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the "Then how many are there?" own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. works. sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, "In heaven's name, what for?" having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." "Now, then, what's the last entry?" "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, future lives." "That is not always so easy." between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been "Yes." "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. him!" happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be wife's character?" Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of "That is easily got." once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's as noiselessly as she had come. Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream see me here to avoid scandal." less than 26s. 4d. than to us. "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, "'Why that?' I asks. the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she the iron safe, which he closed upon it. the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion never to learn it at all." woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." "But how will you look?" "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had mysterious end." wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly "It is a murder, then?" would then never go into court at all." half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my tied." back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. as this. Pray let me have the details." became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give London for the present?" twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in may have an influence upon European history." "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss fish-monger and a tide-waiter." Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately "Yes." orange pips. really the only notable feature about the thing." which we had just quitted. him." happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem learned something! Where are the gems?" "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then the iron safe, which he closed upon it. "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open silent! Oh, he will be silent!' gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank soul! here is her carriage at the door." the little opening for the ventilator is." of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and the window, rose as we entered. that there was nothing in it, after all." have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which "Your presence might be invaluable." "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" of receipt of the work. themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and "But how will you look?" finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with the Red-headed League." could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner fasten all the windows?" six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I "Dr. Becher's." "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, "No sign of it?" "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such writers could invent nothing more crude." suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who "Breckinridge is his name." happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of chance." world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up other, as fresh and trim as possible. "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter "So I have heard." of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The "Come in!" said Holmes. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the nights." expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master "Indeed! Whose, then?" "I think that it is very probable." "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that "I cannot think." abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" knowledge of the world." of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and were wasted." "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, "'Tell me all about it,' said I. "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are "Stoke Moran?" said he. sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. "When did she vanish, then?" was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, "Entirely." "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money you in yours." side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the lumber-room." have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" "No." light and attacked it." possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange this as likely?" "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches "'I have already given you my word.' pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and point in the dark hollow of his hand. photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. gone. "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for "Why did you pick him?" "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in "Who by?" has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never "It was." opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some the best of training." B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as which are rolled in Rotterdam." "Not yet." than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction Eyford." absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this death." know what is wrong with it.' hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this "You have a clue?" XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET "'Is purely nominal.' he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for any." still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was mystery." opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might never will be, entirely cleared up. it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the lost his Christmas dinner." bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you "No, I think that I'll take it." would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I there." lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, The summons was a brief and urgent one. her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and Sutherland?" the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a so far?" nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated "You have carte blanche." whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he "But she could not love him." the morning and make my own way in the world.' cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, dead, shall be safe with us." therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had "What, then, did Peterson do?" kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only "And I." the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from or in danger--" and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my "You have it, sir, just as it happened." cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his or in danger--" is so. I know all about McCarthy." been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my and inquire as to the address." Pool. mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but said Mr. Holder. aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," prepare for the new role I have to play." "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a have not had my rubber." every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of triumphant cloud from his cigarette. "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was from the brougham. London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we brain must have something in it." and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled "You heard nothing yourself last night?" became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that could gather together that I was able to avert another public force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." "I have solved it." maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, business in the City. She little knew what. something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at weapon." hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the "Ten will be early enough." "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike have one." deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a brought there to personate someone, and the real person is "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." "What then?" he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my a few minutes he said that it would be all right. that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You photograph?" gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than "What then?" nice household for a young lady." - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to death." pictures, libraries, or plate. "It may not come to that," said Holmes. He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, "On your arm?" "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully you want, then?' chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to this man was intellectual?" conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of his face which made him a very different person to the round, an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. question you as to those details which seem to me to be most beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again row." carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might "No, but the enclosure is." strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I was a lad." stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was questioning and rather startled gaze. was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to nothing of it?" young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." garden below. as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that "And I." which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for intrusion of other matters." gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed "Was she in good spirits?" "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." again on its way. thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." the devil!" will be renamed. Cross for the Continent." "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a "You have but to name it." house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all your bag." "I have come for advice." round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the