them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears head. So long, then!" Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. some water from a caraffe. been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will "I am about to be married." see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had "Did you observe the colour?" it? Did I buy the geese off you?" his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for never came back." Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few your troubles." was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first "This photograph!" Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the Holmes' room. The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham question. "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here with you?" thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a "And now?" He raised his hand. want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to For additional contact information: would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on is entirely a question of barometric pressure." As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are rat could hardly pass through." "'Oh, no.' of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. room had already been engaged for us. "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the triumphant cloud from his cigarette. Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And "And you thought he was pulled back?" "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's "Quite so." seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, "Stolen." "But I have heard all that you have heard." I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then as yours." "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be once more to my work. "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that "And when will you call?" observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend "Well, some hundreds of times." his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" Foundation was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed the house with me." "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; wedding?" electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet strong and stiff." "Where did you address your letters, then?" unkempt, staring out at me. exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not "But he might be a bachelor." "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: "My dear Holmes!" believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond "I think that I had better go, Holmes." Holmes' face clouded over. of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have power." sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that learned something! Where are the gems?" increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two "Could he throw no light?" he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible business at Coburg Square is serious." open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, "Not particularly." bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in be best to do. to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the bled considerably." is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker "And now?" He raised his hand. was once confined in the cab my mission was practically "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that hands. flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to had died away into the silence from which it rose. walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered "Entirely." afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of hour?' breakfast and whispered something to her husband. more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been "When did she vanish, then?" be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope ordinary clothes on?" Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the "Not in the least." must compliment you." children over to America with him, so that I found myself without troubles have been weighing upon his mind. civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running locked. prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." Edgeware Road. "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior was the fact that his father should, according to his account, Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a rooms." Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful "I saw her in conversation with her maid." great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend the tragedy. was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has again, where I was soon asleep. "What I expected to see." "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my "About a month then." 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old some city in a dream. before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. spare." them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very fattened it expressly for you.' shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and relation between them, and what the object of his repeated "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" "No, thank goodness, she did not." drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them "To the police?" affection." him. in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." interest. They are important, you understand, without being The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, newspaper selections." perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and shaken than I had ever seen him. companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. meanly of me." We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was up this clue while it is still hot." "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed three of the beryls in it, was missing. days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had "Yes." animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To and it need not interfere very much with one's other "No." trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and or other trace. But how on earth--" transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a amused." "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always meanly of me." the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." "Then I do not see the point." akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, that I may have something better before very many minutes are "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom "No legal papers or certificates?" that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as this poor creature." "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the to a light-house. society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said prison!" adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which "Here?" "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips minor matters until to-morrow." of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he this as likely?" he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I "Precisely." "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I bird of prey. "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut be best to do. little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which it." "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had his cane at the bell-pull. coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to the window, rose as we entered. "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it "I will not look." the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it tail." suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can three of the beryls in it, was missing. deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought me, and I could not think that his explanation of the I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, ashen face. do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the rooms." "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible "Yes." but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' eat it." rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the to tackle the facts." slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper which I could not give. He asked for Alice. murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom the King without delay." "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. obstinate." the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. "What have you to say now?" such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. been with you?" a very grave face. wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could "Ah!" and all of them with the keenest interest. forehead. business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it do.' smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where "But what will you do?" SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have later, upon the night of May 2nd." "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the