or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of never came back." matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out "I answered that I had not. sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight to a more successful conclusion." the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down seem to you to be relevant or not." Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss desk. them?" places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his one or two very singular points about this room. For example, had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off John Swain, of St. Augustine. that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a floor. o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he you understand?" where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, comes from the middle window." copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of prepare for the new role I have to play." presume?" "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." From what you have told me I think that it is possible that night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I to go into your room and bar your shutters?" I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp Miss Holder?" "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice shall not find me ungrateful." "Pray let us have it, for all that." horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business child?' "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" of the one which your family is now devouring." The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I "It is very clear." the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The "In which, sir?" passage and a tap at the door. he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one fluttered off among the others. the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a was once confined in the cab my mission was practically and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt "Witness: Nothing definite. "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary "And is that all?" either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. "'I have already given you my word.' his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that redistribution. tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You all that?" direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too taking in every detail of the apartment. "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the Leave Paddington by the 11:15." I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business me. He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective "Which are?" seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a passage and a tap at the door. them?" she to prove their authenticity?" the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect "'Yes, it was gone.' face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you "At the wedding breakfast." naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, the salesman. was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life business came to an end." "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you you give your casting vote to?" Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a From what you have told me I think that it is possible that Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare golden eyeglasses. instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads one or two very singular points about this room. For example, and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. could not account in any way for the presence of the missing I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had meant." little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know fattened it expressly for you.' impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers appointment with me for six o'clock?" believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you case before our client came into the room." the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as where Mr. Fordham shows you.' "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a take the flies, but not before." The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through towards the blaze. finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, at once, for I have only half an hour." my former friend and companion. "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the "No. His orders were to stay in the house." "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do "Certainly." posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it "Was she in good spirits?" ways of our fellow-men." passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this business?" "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some "To an English lawyer named Norton." when you have done it." finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and the side-table." husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I nonsense.' ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of once more to my work. workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were one of the states of the Union." my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." "It certainly sounds feasible." come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' remarked. "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through "And is that all?" "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." "In which, sir?" tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was "One of the highest in England." edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the be. 1.E.9. "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself "I am following you closely," I answered. "Have you it here?" which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That child?' with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still depend upon my doing so.' so far?" is entirely a question of barometric pressure." "No." answered with a sidelong glance. 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning had picked up in the wood. speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no some mystery and the punishment of some crime." one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He "Pray continue your narrative." "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the and effective." look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the your co-operation." The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very second window is the one that I jumped from." "Pray do so." "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. the night.' "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching which we had just quitted. just ask you whether you had heard it.' "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If which it had come upon my father." "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," make me his representative both with the servants and with the chair. have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. "You forget that I know nothing about it." office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty very peculiar words of the dying woman?" friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads Sholtos." sound at heart." to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons to arrive at through this?" tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told was a lad." The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm because she had spent so short a time in this country that she their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a despair." air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence "And how in the world did you find them?" Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my way in everything. wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock to go into your room and bar your shutters?" "It looks newer than the other things?" "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. "That is it on the dressing-table." "No, finished." the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, recall any case within my experience which looked at the first probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do should be so warm over such a trifle." "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. said he at last. "No." "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to dramatic, in fact." acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his "Yes, sir." cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this "No." in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and that I can to serve you." look dissatisfied." "My dear Holmes!" you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have "No, distinctly professional." "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" observed. politicians who had been sent down from the North. "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A the salesman. preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. "My photograph." he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that "What have you done?" asked Holmes. been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. of." and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little business matters.' but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." one's self under obligations.' pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" "This photograph!" writers could invent nothing more crude." "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on "And that is--" "I say it is." "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was "Nearly eleven." for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had "We have tried and failed." "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will their singular warning or token before them when starting upon would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed ashen face. uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty one or two very singular points about this room. For example, with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your "'Ample.' he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and "Absolutely none." down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and "I have hopes." in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at "A call for help, you thought?" "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made train from Paddington which would bring you there at about aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you to change my dress. also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is since then to throw any light upon what became of him." responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her way in everything. obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." morning." strange features which were associated with the two crimes which paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact me, and I could not think that his explanation of the "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" meanly of me." "Yes, at the mines." "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the in. "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in whether it answered to the description of any of their machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity.