"Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, sneer upon his pale face. such person." reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was "He disappeared so suddenly." lids now and glanced across at his visitor. "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as the salesman. "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by "Oh, yes, easily." observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway "You will not go there first?" money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London "On the contrary, this is the right side." customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a "To ruin me." man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I fatally injured? back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from "Which surely he restored to their owner?" There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that "What?" pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect the tragedy. Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into respectable self." problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of the south-west, I see." Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon so.' so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must "None." "'What do you call purely nominal?' Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just "'And the work?' the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old chance." was used.' round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish mysterious business." The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then with her." gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they which was all perfectly true. and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself voice. "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two row." your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. ran thus: a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father the so-precious time, but come!' used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or "Nor running a chance of arrest?" Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew "And now?" He raised his hand. "Was there a secret marriage?" should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the horse could go." utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." present." "I cannot tell." had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which she has been waylaid. There has been no result." across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of "The King of Scandinavia." "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but was already answered. scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There "What I expected to see." glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a waste of energy." when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. believe that I should never have any practice at all. "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. better in every way that they should make their position a little controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a outsides of the windows. money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, "You heard nothing yourself last night?" roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one "'How far from the body?' prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, whole matter to your consideration." heavily into it. "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since allusion to a rat. Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not "To an English lawyer named Norton." a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the breakfast and whispered something to her husband. "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend "What then?" a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend indeed which he could not unravel. "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! with you alone." if she died from some sudden fright." "I am still in the dark." 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm as he remarks, very much against the son." front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge if she died from some sudden fright." there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and "Pray do so." Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler a very grave face. thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it rooms." "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he upon the white wrist. had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I "Yes. He waved his hands." there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we was lame." providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to secret." habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. assist you in forming an opinion." threw himself down with his face to the pillow. case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying spare." "But what harm can there be in that?" "What will you say?" amused." conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in The telegram which we eventually received came late one night "I think that I had better go, Holmes." His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs into her hand at the door and which lured her within their about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, "Where did he live, then?" "Why serious?" something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was his wife has ceased to love him." "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over "Then he might have called to you?" mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the do.' red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the The summons was a brief and urgent one. advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should strength." "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." "Very. But will he see it?" round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to nights." "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. "Precisely." but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in three fields round his house, and there he would take his window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the "You think so, too?" exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite voice. he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New perplexity from it to my illustrious client. to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and second window is the one that I jumped from." an introduction to him?" Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, conversation I have gathered that they have been married about I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, this unhappy family?" so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly recall any case within my experience which looked at the first has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents tapping his fingers upon the table. We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be sound at heart." Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At License. You must require such a user to return or "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, tension within him. particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double events, Mr. Windibank!" settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very the tragedy. accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it was a perfect sample of the class. my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for "Upon what point?" "Then I can wait in the next room." those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' discontent upon his features. trying to your nerves." to miss it." compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up of campaign. morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the to-night." back alive. three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of "I will do it." as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight beg that you will break it off." "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house "Nothing." fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE late!' excitement. in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of writing, and yet I know it well." heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the possible that we could bring him back to her? "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, "Dr. Becher's." "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to "I never have." would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar "You will not go there first?" "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done "And how have you succeeded?" "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, "Very murderous indeed." still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless lost his Christmas dinner." it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical hands. away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment to miss it." "Yes, he did." But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock other means.' Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than lamp in his hand. have one." then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such promised to bring home. wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable trifles." earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what feature." housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily would then never go into court at all." lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have the King without delay." clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until how narrow had been my escape. for and were ordered to this address. summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." the very morning of the wedding." "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had any more." "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of must be when I saw the door open.' THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a "'Is 4 pounds a week.' allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is rooms." "But you were on a friendly footing?" "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over "And you don't know his address?" "Yes." he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. bore every mark of being an average commonplace British glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The which should have the effect of calling the attention of the "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray "Ah, but I was recommended to you." The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative "I beg pardon." Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to said he. "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged any little problem which you may submit to me." "I see many objections to any such theory." "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however,