near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or "Yes, he did." to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. "My stepfather's business papers." train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who sneer upon his pale face. insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of "But the mystery?" feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than was keenly on my guard against him. opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest "Then I can wait in the next room." so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." "The best possible." reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. with frightened eyes at his accuser. "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is "It surprised me." at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." all?" (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very acted in my house last night?" "But you were on a friendly footing?" shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty go--none." "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very prove to be little relation between the different incidents of from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method three fields round his house, and there he would take his "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in make me his representative both with the servants and with the "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is "She showed me, as I told you she would." "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab "And now?" I asked. "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step with the outside air!" of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while "Yes, there are nearly always some there." serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought "The landlord of the Alpha." a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and matter." with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can Watson," he said cordially. giving me time to thank him. there was no need for father to know." "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very least a fellow-countryman. It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. "Then you may be so with me." knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, bell. Holmes whistled. notes," he said. manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute "An enemy?" every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing of them has the shutters up.' Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your help us in this matter." Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have problems help me to do so." "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what "'Never,' said I. endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left "What of the rat, then?" either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. the King without delay." she slowly sank and died without having recovered her "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. me have 200 pounds?' little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates "The landlord of the Alpha." the window, rose as we entered. said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a away to you." have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in the matter?" out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely served to weaken the effect. crowd. "My opinion is in no way altered." "Then, as to money?" and have this put in the evening papers." the morning and make my own way in the world.' with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally could not have written that. It is the German who is so handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." three fields round his house, and there he would take his has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a intrusion of other matters." the Assizes." I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to served to weaken the effect. emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. "I guessed as much." the general public were present, then?" "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear weapon." one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." "How often?" met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and "The murder was done with it." wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I "Witness: I must still refuse. man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. "'About the same.' Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch impression behind it as though a window had gently closed "'You doubt its value?' he asked. you." his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. felt?" "What office?" comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was must compliment you." "Get out!" said he. "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could "Will you go?" This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying call for protection in the marriage market, for the present hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." conversation I have gathered that they have been married about page at http://pglaf.org insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came and inquire as to the address." ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" "None." downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the "How did he come?" bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake as he folded up the epistle. idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. golden eyeglasses. commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but said he. the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with the coronet in his hands?" your billet.' other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy fish-monger and a tide-waiter." the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers congratulate you again." quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I hard-headed British jury." "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point "But your client--" fled together." the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not any." about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked "Here?" the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such some mystery and the punishment of some crime." "Witness: It was. ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed had a long day." original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous to where he stood hid behind the curtain. recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the "You are all wrong." something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether you, my dear young lady?' "Then I do not see the point." "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the someone who had been in Australia." that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between them present such singular features as the strange train of "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are could gather together that I was able to avert another public firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining "Perhaps I have." they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a held up the lantern and gazed about him. wedding?" "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near villagers almost as much as their master. envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we a good hundred miles off by now." of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep was a lad." been deceived." residence of the great financier. was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police success. "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come you give your casting vote to?" and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what morning." copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by speckled band?" confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that there was no need for father to know." hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the to surprise her." police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the "Very truly yours, Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I "Dark enough and sinister enough." puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. tassel actually lying upon the pillow. Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. entirely lost his self-respect." often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See I. held up the lantern and gazed about him. "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of "Ah, but I was recommended to you." incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are door?" closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away leaning back in his chair. Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND "We must have a cab." with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double "I have come for advice." was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of mysterious end." the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as "'I am sure if I had known--' opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at "'No, I know no one in these parts.' clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and to you." breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major notes," he said. with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were too. in. Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." lamp in his hand. river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This wedding?" I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, ashen face. can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all "The Cedars?" hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able Sutherland. were unconscious?" there is a decided draught." James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the my former friend and companion. hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." other lovers by making love himself." Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. "Yes, it was twisted." blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has thirty. "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more night.' said he. INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. too. "I do." more terrible than the truth. very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, absolutely follow my advice in every respect." character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their was it brought him the coronet? Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it "Quite so. She has her freedom." august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the tail." them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the "Yes." girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, him nearly every evening." into the room. "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have "My last client of the sort was a king." putting in the horse. "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled dramatic, in fact." how narrow had been my escape. bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence his fortune, and I went back to pa. crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between drove away. studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your The police have openly confessed that they can at present make horse could go." deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong I think that I could be of assistance to you." the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the DAMAGE. homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" which was all perfectly true. my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my a suggestive one." every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, Arthur Conan Doyle nights." all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm