"You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view how narrow had been my escape. firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his "Then I can wait in the next room." rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a "Not him." Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my "I never have." demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we Holmes. "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that one else, I think." can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case for its centre. felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set always that they were such commands as a lady might with think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly cigars in their mouths. chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my kind enough to tell me what I should do." down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you disappearance of these gems?" sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and national property. I was determined that the law should have its his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. made him keep the appointment." "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which man. attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, "An accident, I presume?" even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced noise which awoke you from your sleep?" cup of tea. Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. British peeress.'" "How often?" He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, "Look there!" said he. scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among do." and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself "Can I be of assistance?" great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' Sutherland. As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." the stable lane now." problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, "And I say east," said my patient. the very letters. But what is this written above them?' the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to the iron safe, which he closed upon it. that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so meant it for the best. Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a is a common subject for conversation. nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in enter Dr. Roylott's room." received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to "One of his hands." position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able daring than any effort of the imagination." stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A "How did you trace it, then?" "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to fled together." rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There "Yes." you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, Gutenberg-tm License. Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary "You think that he is dead?" client, rising. Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. place no limit on the sum I may draw." dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever "Not particularly." your sleep?' events, Mr. Windibank!" of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you deduce something from that?" took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in and put his glass in his pocket. It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly "Will you bet, then?" aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to outside. "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It "'Very good.' coroner's jury." "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the bore every mark of being an average commonplace British "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture to Leatherhead. possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong "'Not at all. I only doubt--' him nearly every evening." word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it golden eyeglasses. and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't "Thank you. And your address?" "And what did you learn from him?" reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over her also." how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection "The doctor?" eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had think that he is innocent?" We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the yards of it?' utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman considering the formidable letters which were received by himself consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." or in danger--" in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the friend's singular character. me where it went to?" purpose equally well?" transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I skylight. girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the you." the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even ran thus: so far?" explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying The telegram which we eventually received came late one night any little problem which you may submit to me." With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as province." office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a notes," he said. quickly through a disagreeable task. imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who persecution?" This is what he says: is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would has little to do with my story." "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his less than 26s. 4d. "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. not personally threatened." My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. fat-encircled eyes. without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most "It goes to the housekeeper's room." we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, think that he is innocent?" from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. "The gentleman I describe." "It goes to the housekeeper's room." "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." "None." "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." "What then?" "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him it." self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark "'It is locked up,' I answered. "Really! You surprise me." freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and presume?" every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed "But what is it you wish?" in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I such attractions and accomplishments?' should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very "I shall be delighted." Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the "What steps will you take?" I asked. headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a "Do you go out much in society?" I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water "If I can be of use." in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees pity, because in other respects you would really have done very other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but "Stolen, then." "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, matter." caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little that you saw all that I did." scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and was already answered. "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to "'Quite sure, dad.' dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her "Of Friday, June 19th." Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a lectures into a series of tales." "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in "Entirely." stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That happened." certainly not very gracious." "That is not always so easy." our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated have accepted such a situation. "And Irene Adler?" We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so chair. the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for cheerful." work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any "On the contrary, this is the right side." that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old that he has suffered." explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was straightened it out again. indeed happy." "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until go--none." "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my "I should be immensely obliged to you." given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and "Oh, fresh and glossy." even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you anything to a woman, for she would have her way." light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no "I say it is." itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some "Texas, I think." down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his "And why?" "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower this unhappy family?" step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and lost nothing by them." Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush "Thank you. And your address?" spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that been anything against him. He had for years been known as a time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried we went to search for him, face downward in a little grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical breakfast and whispered something to her husband. any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that lectures into a series of tales." thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his "I am armed." without success. At last the little money which I had saved began dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." "Look there!" said he. would apply.' "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and It may be so in this case, also." visitors." one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the fuss that is made over them." ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the the house with me." assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said "The King of Scandinavia." may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have begun to whiten, even as mine has." another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not or in danger--" upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the events, Mr. Windibank!" How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but "And now?" I asked. "I answered that I had not. "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and during that time.' wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, Again Holmes raved in the air. chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. could not account in any way for the presence of the missing "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, Holmes' room. charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so simple cases which are so extremely difficult." the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' of the one which your family is now devouring." "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,