leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had "You have the photograph?" I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate jewels which you have stolen?' "'It is locked up,' I answered. mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he It may be so in this case, also." been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the once more on the important position which you have been fortunate "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some "It missed him, then?" saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." indeed happy." list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just existence." presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I at once, for I have only half an hour." followed. was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you triumphant cloud from his cigarette. written, and locked the door of the office after me. brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident village inn over there?" to-night?" I asked. least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped "She will not sell." seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. "I don't say that. Perhaps." yards of it?' "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no "Yes." confronted him. stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was McCarthy's innocence. stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the plantation.' dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium the matter." than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a "One horse?" interjected Holmes. For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open someone who had been in Australia." suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during do." "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was "My private note-paper." "Oh, fresh and glossy." A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three Gutenberg-tm License. "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the 1.F. you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened "Never." of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. as the one I chose?' he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and and the church but not where the lady lived." a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the "A confidential servant?" doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we cup of tea. while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it awkward doing business with an alias." "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a in. on re-entering her father's house?" more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the mystery may be cleared along those lines." more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of "And leave your case unfinished?" writing, and yet I know it well." Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made down in his armchair and closing his eyes. her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A "'Which dealer's?' come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and "Dr. Becher's." But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those floor. stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." "No, but the enclosure is." from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the newspaper selections." Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of "It goes to the housekeeper's room." her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, together. as he remarks, very much against the son." into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: chamber." work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You nice household for a young lady." woven round him. who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, the child." himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after fluttered off among the others. better grown goose." fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly the morning and make my own way in the world.' "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent help us in this matter." depend upon my doing so.' INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. "Yes, I have one waiting." mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. whether it answered to the description of any of their "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you cup of tea. We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a direction." our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The companion quietly. surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just "That was it, sir." upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; off." ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were "You are all wrong." should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of views." typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his "Texas, I think." through." "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and front of the hall door has given its name to the place. reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very better grown goose." "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." outside. receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a "Why? What do you mean?" "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. meant." and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it "I will get her to show me." than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing "Ah!" itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the Arthur Conan Doyle surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the "What is it?" printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a "Pray tell us what has happened to you." "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and "Yes." inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and appointment with me for six o'clock?" A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which "Because he was handy and would come cheap." "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she James Windibank. Voilà tout!" "He might." had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered had picked up in the wood. of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had looking up at the numbers of the houses." certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of make me his representative both with the servants and with the kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb a suggestive one." should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" Holmes' room. "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." "'What then?' I asked. fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas "Of Friday, June 19th." One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. that you can jump it.' A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but green of the new foliage. down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar putting in the horse. lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, "He might." "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, generous with you in money matters.' "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior look dissatisfied." home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." towards the blaze. my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, "'No, I know no one in these parts.' wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to "Then I do not see the point." "Did he not advertise?" pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had "Very well, sir. And this stone?" followed. the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His felt the room to be a little close.' a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his "My dear Holmes!" appeared upon the scene." which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden business in the City. She little knew what. say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's at once, for I have only half an hour." true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which him and tried to hold him back. "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this suddenly upon us." "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good "Pray tell us what has happened to you." entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor never to learn it at all." Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No placed his cuttings. without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very behind me. "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name this unhappy family?" stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, companion. and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. John Swain, of St. Augustine. would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. that to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few you understand?" Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw you." think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted window when the police appeared." light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought "My dear Holmes!" excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled swore that no one else had been in the front room during the roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. keep the flames under. sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the the night.' are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. get her out of the way." of it with the greatest attention. corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in have one." when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no the devil!" truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. province." "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The for its centre. feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort burst into a hearty fit of laughter. "And why in hopes?" an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such "You have but to name it." towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." the matter?" prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is "What do you mean?" man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly