in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this "Precisely." weapon." "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. little trying to do so much typewriting?" the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his at my remark. to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." "'Certainly not.' "But who is he?" box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say "When did she vanish, then?" come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon "I cannot imagine." said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a presented which may be striking and bizarre without being clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since "'And what are they worth?' I asked. neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have "Not in the least." impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have him. his cane at the bell-pull. product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said foresight and the moral retrogression?" reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them to that open window." "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. gone. a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir voice, changing her seat as requested. "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and the devil!" "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a forbidden door. something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. writer." years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. eavesdroppers?' that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up companion imperturbably. must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my "Married! When?" long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there "How did you trace it, then?" "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me not come at once?" "That's no good." populous neighbourhood." broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use information in his hands the value of which he did not himself have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until Surrey." "Do you go out much in society?" the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to where we are going." has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an The note was undated, and without either signature or address. "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the undoubtedly my uncle's." "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions him to go away.' was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. spare." ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. him nearly every evening." wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in "You have it, sir, just as it happened." word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and strong reason behind." as this. Pray let me have the details." save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his his huge brown hands. the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." me what he had done with the three missing stones. Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, showing my impatience. qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." "Yes, from Horsham." "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. appointment with me for six o'clock?" and all of them with the keenest interest. I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very what these perils are?" she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at "Quite so." The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to "And your father? Did you tell him?" side. "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you bonnet, and went out." "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" way: two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten closing the door. and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." III. pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds "Pray tell us what has happened to you." platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled easy-going way." outside. had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He will not take me long to tell. them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the "And how?" "It looks newer than the other things?" tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said yards of it?' "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in indeed which he could not unravel. "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the Sutherland?" perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at the loss of it. admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: "One of his hands." the nursery. was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric "Yes, there are nearly always some there." the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had flock.' 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. him nearly every evening." I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his such person." considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." "Why? What do you mean?" to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands "Yes, all." "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." was already answered. bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he back to my heart. more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled "That is not always so easy." everything which you would wish to know." in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our cheerful." 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to "Nor running a chance of arrest?" a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If "Has he come with you to-night?" bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in "And help." "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the sooner or later she must fall a victim. your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition in. 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how October 9, 1890. squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small into her hand at the door and which lured her within their Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small one's self under obligations.' the warnings." fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, Watson," he said cordially. we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this head. So long, then!" to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that "Dark enough and sinister enough." During two years I have had three consultations and one small occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we "You have carte blanche." determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. row." firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became morning." next day. similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came the very letters. But what is this written above them?' dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his pictures, libraries, or plate. us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of "Look there!" said he. "And from a noble client?" is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without certainly not very gracious." window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business colonel looking down at me. all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may voice. a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have and it need not interfere very much with one's other work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more been with you?" the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself indiscretion." and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. death." hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air sound at heart." passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated "At the wedding breakfast." should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried go from here to the Strand." we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the row." like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade down from London to inquire more deeply into it." got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever strength of mind to control. Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the good-night and bustled off upon her way. ashen face. George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, which it had come upon my father." inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the was shining brightly. travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the bachelor.' trying to your nerves." "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed the Friday. Was it to be in church?" "Quite so. She has her freedom." has little to do with my story." they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the annoyance, but no jest. for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly "Why did you beat the pavement?" home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing "Nothing?" the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager "Has he come with you to-night?" "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence triumphant cloud from his cigarette. a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." "No." like that before?" "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. been anything against him. He had for years been known as a "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, is four-and-twenty." license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it followed. Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so "Dirty?" questionable one." preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that Holmes. discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, "I was afraid that you were engaged." yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would retorted upon me, and I on you." strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, signal between you and your father? James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and "I will do it." though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the new duties?' "And what then?" "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom "The doctor?" into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the reach." triumphant cloud from his cigarette. "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you handed it to him. "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." "I shall most certainly do so." meant." the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up depend upon my doing so.' "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at it." this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind garden below. which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others him." "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the "Certainly." before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the "Now, then, what's the last entry?" light and attacked it." pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the "And how did you find out?" was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." legal crime." snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own bed dies. Does not that strike you?" him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear means taking possession of that which another person has a prior about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon "And from a noble client?" to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a