conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: politicians who had been sent down from the North. "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I thin, with a long, sharp nose?" "Yes, sir." turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The be best to do. "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly awaited us upon the table. plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion "I cannot say that I have." and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, "Do you receive much company?" he asked. your sleep?' photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open "And how have you succeeded?" takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as "In which, sir?" business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell "Ha! you find it so?" a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to directors have had misgivings upon the subject." means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version a suggestive one." the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something "Yes, there are nearly always some there." end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must pictures, libraries, or plate. when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for was feeling which was the fattest.' of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his Literary Archive Foundation "'Yes, it was gone.' home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first garden below. five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" people don't know." There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case works. a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, residence of the great financier. WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your highly," said Holmes. Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house to-night's adventure." magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the chemical work which was so dear to him. should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let "Precisely." son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan with frightened eyes at his accuser. round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things "I am following you closely," I answered. what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of unprecedented a position." "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, "Certainly, madam." "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some "That is easily got." "But how?" DISSOLVED. key turn in the lock." have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw "How can you tell that?" however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider the running down." than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." bachelor.' were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better electronic works "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most confronted him. the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able him." the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the instituted." first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its is four-and-twenty." deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the open." "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been said I. works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had "No." his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he in. "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the at a side door. time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. about here speaks of his kindness to him." Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a bore every mark of being an average commonplace British often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. strong reason behind." "Quite so. She has her freedom." his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot acquaintance?" "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I "In the cells." The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a "None." home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is retorted upon me, and I on you." Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear three fields round his house, and there he would take his smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 she used." of his shoulders. "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" be there in time for your coming." have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered "So I heard. You have him here?" "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, go--none." first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." "It looks newer than the other things?" see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the it." "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were "I came to find a friend." Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing it were putty." jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten the iron safe, which he closed upon it. the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step a few minutes he said that it would be all right. "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that "What of the rat, then?" lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. the bed, and you in that chair." "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was "This concluded the examination of the witness." "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and this unhappy family?" "What then?" her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that "It was an hour's good drive." "Ha! you find it so?" corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other look upon these things in a different way." office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed singular points about the case. What did the police think of the with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a have not had my rubber." shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been your only hope of safety." to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America "'Is purely nominal.' horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own in your London, you will know that the office of the company is "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached breakfast and whispered something to her husband. better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite figure." King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events "'Yes, I promise.' "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner the one as in the other." "Here?" I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. "It is true that I have been generally successful." "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as the tragedy. which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." "On your arm?" she might be summoned. the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove "One of his hands." there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. wife's character?" that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the was already answered. The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the Holmes. my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of "In answer to an advertisement." she used." dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I second window is the one that I jumped from." Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he the dangers which encompass me." "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to "Yes, I have one waiting." I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. because she had spent so short a time in this country that she photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the Mrs. Toller serenely. his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon better in every way that they should make their position a little "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own "You have it, sir, just as it happened." shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' tied." before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I "I cannot tell." follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his views." Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, dramatic, in fact." think, you have already met." and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before infinite languor in his face. he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear call the police, let the police find what they can.' "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases knowledge of the world." princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, is worth.' coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to giving me time to thank him. towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled six. Come in!" consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter it." examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just rat could hardly pass through." in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his of the vacancies.' yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue there has been an enclosure here!" to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a "'Never,' said I. which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he in. and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security neither fascinating nor artistic." reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to "But we can't all be." grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of "'Yes, I promise.' despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost "In the cells." last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are "'No, I know no one in these parts.' "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. "'Which dealer's?' month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from there has been an enclosure here!" conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of of Mr. Rucastle's." "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. colour had been driven from his face. manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off "And the murderer?" photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." could not account in any way for the presence of the missing you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of room?" submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here examine." chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. you?' the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better may have an influence upon European history." Street. "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, fact, we may call it conclusive." hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his the so-precious time, but come!' accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the chemical work which was so dear to him. Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and yards of it?' Lee, in the county of Kent." brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the "He slept on the premises." dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and "What is the young man's own account of the matter?"