age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was very peculiar words of the dying woman?" for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester "Certainly." "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we tapping his fingers upon the table. questioning and rather startled gaze. know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, "Pray be precise as to details," said he. even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to question you as to those details which seem to me to be most nonsense.' beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, business at Coburg Square is serious." chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, "Nothing?" the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and "I know where it is." "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when distinguish the words: have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am and the colonel ushered me in. 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" "Yes." "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. was lame." breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a "VIOLET HUNTER." glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of hands. The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men outside. "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, morning." essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable business." his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, "Nothing?" make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case purpose equally well?" considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the "From his hat?" at my remark. husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that what is your own theory as to what took place?" such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only "In answer to an advertisement." http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the "Can I be of assistance?" in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not one's self under obligations.' sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in "That is easily got." "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and "Yes?" than to us. "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger "You think that he is dead?" painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as directly by questioning you." to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said "It is half-past ten now." writer." in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You "But what harm can there be in that?" slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who delighted to hear it," he said. that the gas is not laid on in his house?" the dangers which encompass me." dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a feature." should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. Holmes. "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased what do you think they found in the pockets?" repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider enter into my head. to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the will find little credit to be gained out of this case." handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my burst out into a roar of laughter. be there in time for your coming." opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to security.' but preventing her from injuring another. "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' nonsense.' "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If I approached. stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. present." "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" "'It is locked up,' I answered. "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let there when the Rucastles went away." misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever pound a week." the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have little adventures." "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a some place of shelter and let the county police know what has "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who purpose equally well?" delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect "Yes." the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP dear old homesteads?" The police have openly confessed that they can at present make out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" "But how?" exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave think you a quite exceptional woman." need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you "No." Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, as yours." already been minutely examined." instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This without a word or a look. during that time.' "I promise," said Holmes. mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty legal crime." noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I him, that man would not have given me such complete information and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. of a light. "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of colonel looking down at me. be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as "Quite so." George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible the coronet in his hand?" to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted house for five minutes.' woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly morning." chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his that there was nothing in it, after all." beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant in this way: prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to never came back." License. You must require such a user to return or have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined "No, but the enclosure is." considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to "Quite so." "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so tightly behind him. pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." distance from the station, and there we found the young lady noble correspondent could be. and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it you." Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with him nearly every evening." "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came on re-entering her father's house?" me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his how narrow had been my escape. four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your digesting their breakfasts at home." with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said chamber." the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your writing, and yet I know it well." and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford straightened it out again. "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed be.' with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He "'Is purely nominal.' urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the weapon." approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the examination of the premises, but without finding anything which "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, papers on the sundial.'" to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you hard-headed British jury." married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR "Very. But will he see it?" Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and cup of tea. it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine redistribution. hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the "'I am sure if I had known--' labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a "It certainly sounds feasible." the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just brandy and water within his reach. "A confidential servant?" space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." detained." difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As did not hear it also.' "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news occurred." and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over "And when will you call?" his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and "She showed me, as I told you she would." leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit "Get out!" said he. was used.' is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found woven round him. is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings despaired of." I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the the matter?" dead, shall be safe with us." Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, "Game for a morning drive?" "May I see it?" with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be "And on what day did he meet his death?" seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but you, my dear young lady?' and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them "To the police?" "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and "Yes." behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his bill, which interests me deeply." when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him it." "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this characteristics, but those are the more obvious." "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. made his money." The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, was a lad." room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' "Look there!" said he. reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' a very grave face. of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for writer." more terrible than the truth. when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was during which he might have communicated with his friend the to arrive at through this?" the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to "Her father is very rich?" "Quite so. She has her freedom." younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is "Not I." "I will try. What is it?" It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on to-morrow." the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate when your master had gone out." had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, hair?' case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and prisoner's face. cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the Eyford at 11:15.' and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them "Upon what point?" Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of lamp in his hand. that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification "10th. John Swain cleared. possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask me upon any point which I do not make clear." "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." reach." prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the woman."