"No, I think that I'll take it." come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and intimate personal affairs in this public manner." handed it to him. everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing suggested at once that there must be a communication between the and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid once more for Briony Lodge. half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking "We have tried and failed." "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk "In what way?" asked Holmes. station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done o'clock is it?" you?" sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." shall use the carriage to-night." "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the shoulder; "he's all right." neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold "'What, the red-headed man?' instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked "Yes." hand, madam?" "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father "At what time?" had formerly been in part my own. "None. Neville wrote those words." hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then one of the states of the Union." "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the October 9, 1890. upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." "No." questioning and rather startled gaze. newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. "You have carte blanche." back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main again." "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she the loss of it. a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a habit of advancing money.' impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One "I am in hopes that she does." "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had held up the lantern and gazed about him. and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and the running down." business in the City. She little knew what. "What will you say?" labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern "It is very kind of you." think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." "The decline of his fortunes, then?" position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. "Eh? What was that?" into the room. following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and over his head with a sweet womanly caress. located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from trying to your nerves." case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and corner of the building. "At half-wages, in fact." "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then "I don't say that. Perhaps." the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, might have a private word with us. once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes passage and a tap at the door. in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I upon an income of about 60 pounds." dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing hard-headed British jury." matters immensely." truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his of it with the greatest attention. I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the Dr. Gregory B. Newby young Openshaw's." thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." man. itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with burst out into a roar of laughter. Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," "Her father is very rich?" certainly do as you advise." something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such as yours." "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I over with notes and figures. the armchair which I pushed forward for him. You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to may never be exposed to such a temptation." "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if in one or two places in England?' "Witness: It was. "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get "What of the rat, then?" and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor "No more words. Get out!" which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now "The knees of his trousers." this remarkable episode. my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my had picked up in the wood. his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying "One of the highest in England." breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it fire. You quite follow me?" so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They examination of the premises, but without finding anything which voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" lectures into a series of tales." abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has me what he had done with the three missing stones. smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of "Yes." formed some opinion?" "Look there!" said he. they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that "Dark enough and sinister enough." down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life "I think it very unlikely." acquaintance?" hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left you." will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. "Absolutely none." "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which know all about it," he snarled. you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the second window is the one that I jumped from." even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew in this note: rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve undoubtedly my uncle's." "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his "Certainly." family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another ago." but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the Sutherland. "I don't believe it." band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could them, and came down just as you departed. himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the comes from the middle window." sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman "But who is he?" and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for gone. could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said "What, then, did Peterson do?" clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a notes," he said. a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." "Was she in good spirits?" "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the had no one to advise her at such a crisis." you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the away to you." was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." "What will you do, then?" room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. there!' "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice "What, then, did Peterson do?" "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our "Why? What do you mean?" "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." there in twenty minutes." followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were entirely devoid of interest." desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and disappearance of these gems?" unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. Does that suggest anything?" Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of all-comprehensive glances. him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying in one or two places in England?' even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that your co-operation." "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous the one as in the other." have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big "Very much so." "Perfectly so." strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless following enigmatical notices: agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias shoulder. tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his "'Stolen!' he cried. "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which galvanised. with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the sentimental considerations in the background which would induce Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the "The Coroner: What do you mean? him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point gone. "What steps will you take?" I asked. The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His Street. supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from read over the extraordinary announcement. association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any observed. "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day "It is half-past ten now." to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did to where he stood hid behind the curtain. true." extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One fasten all the windows?" aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he "And how did he make his money?" no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant developed." and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from "Not him." long narrative. sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. "We must sit without light. He would see it through the I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, "And Irene Adler?" my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the "Thank you. Pray proceed." foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to "How did that help you?" o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My there is a decided draught." the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone and inquire as to the address." of note-paper. It read in this fashion: "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that to-night?" I asked. taking in every detail of the apartment. it." think that he is innocent?" little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." to have been novel and of interest." "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and "I think that it is very probable." me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the annoyance, but no jest. the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's there were so many in the whole country as were brought together "Then you may entirely rely on me." know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a