started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm call the police, let the police find what they can.' "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself looking up at the numbers of the houses." could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from the little opening for the ventilator is." and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat washing it down with a long draught of water. "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more tightly behind him. expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can The events in question occurred in the early days of my Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the "Yes." yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. distance from the station, and there we found the young lady "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? "But to whom?" man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such "Yes, from Horsham." one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit lids now and glanced across at his visitor. severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it DAMAGE. that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, strength in the others." then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers "And the murderer?" affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would "'Is 4 pounds a week.' own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of "Ample." "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I minor matters until to-morrow." served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush "She walked into the breakfast-room." had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and possible that we could bring him back to her? maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave be best to do. "'Is purely nominal.' of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has of his shoulders. connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. opened a pocket-book and took out a note. take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just and the church but not where the lady lived." and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while a good hundred miles off by now." legal crime." two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been "How did he come?" "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about started for the Temple to see my husband. been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship "A greater distance to travel." ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of I leave." the child." could not account in any way for the presence of the missing the south-west, I see." "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss "What do you make of that, Watson?" key of the affair now." "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. in the dead of the night?' geese which you supplied to the Alpha." in this note: even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no without success. At last the little money which I had saved began "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body problems help me to do so." "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the "Very well, sir. And this stone?" unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are bedroom door." upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, "Yesterday." those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's "And what then?" the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of to-night." Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right ran thus: strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless leaning back in his chair. a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy "By no means." on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose simple cases which are so extremely difficult." "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the fire. You quite follow me?" "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help waste of energy." "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, You want to know what became of those geese?" "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to signal between you and your father? While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly criminal. We have already had experience of such." caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small carried out of court." "But what is it you wish?" coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and "How did you trace it, then?" preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the distance from the station, and there we found the young lady "Which are?" gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable lectures into a series of tales." Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the promised to bring home. Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" "'What then?' I asked. "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now "Well, it is a possible supposition." lost nothing by them." It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, cigar and let me expound." all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." had no one to advise her at such a crisis." opportunities to fix the problem. have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, main points of my analysis." open." bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in "Yes, from Horsham." was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales must compliment you." very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon "Certainly." he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the were unconscious?" blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. "Dark enough and sinister enough." that he has suffered." the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she heavily into it. preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique good for you to do.' but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our "I cannot as yet see any connection." of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He "Where did you address your letters, then?" and effective." determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for may have an influence upon European history." that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with said I. tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he papers on the sundial.'" off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, Surrey." flock.' the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a test if we have an answer to our advertisement." not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" "I fear not." appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the families. Now for the facts. part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." and glanced through. "Was the window open?" unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every quickly through a disagreeable task. us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is there were so many in the whole country as were brought together where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the straighten it?" beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which again on its way. hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, "Indeed! Whose, then?" "What shall I do?" "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which that, and I came down." there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked "What then?" "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. "I saw her in conversation with her maid." the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. and your relations to her." "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his showing my impatience. "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the "Witness: It was. occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but for the market.' "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a "And leave your case unfinished?" headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the opened the door, and slipped through. and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about "If so, much may have happened between." made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the photograph?" somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my Lee, in the county of Kent." away to you." "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other 11:15.' very peculiar words of the dying woman?" you found me to-night--and running through the front room she pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or subject to the trademark license, especially commercial police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That "No, distinctly professional." horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking "Very murderous indeed." here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that that threaten you." "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary James Windibank. Voilà tout!" The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out that I am arrested." "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' "Awake, Watson?" he asked. can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. out of this horrible affair." possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of extraordinary contortions. "I was sure that I might rely on you." Literary Archive Foundation no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of copied or distributed: his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his "'Is purely nominal.' "'No, I know no one in these parts.' lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional rooms." heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the to a light-house. stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any written. station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' breakfast?" the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited village inn over there?" The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; "What will you do, then?" VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." is so. I know all about McCarthy." I was concerned in it." words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you "What!" he roared. "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. hand, madam?" I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of orange pips. daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. "That also I could fathom." breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more was a perfect sample of the class. photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second "Thank you. Pray proceed." over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is throat." interests were the same as his." memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the "None." fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' "Witness: Nothing definite. of fine shops and stately business premises that they really suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and "My opinion is in no way altered." we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, friend's singular character. "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now front of me. about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say to a light-house. toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but "That is not always so easy." opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the compunction about shooting them down." or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday like gravel from a pit.' handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It how narrow had been my escape. "And now?" I asked. traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two The note was undated, and without either signature or address. two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we "Game for a morning drive?" up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It answer." called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle "'Ample.' "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson the room while you explain this matter?" sufficient punishment." the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign some city in a dream. within hail.' you." grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned Chief Executive and Director "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress a suggestive one." silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily.