towards the blaze. "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of dramatic, in fact." and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain way in." them, and came down just as you departed. sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. strength in the others." It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is closely." redistribution. Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long "Pray do so." card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it leaning back in his chair. sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester ourselves in the office." profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on families. Now for the facts. 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. events than those which have happened in my own family." "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both "Ha! you find it so?" "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a astonishment. "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, "Yes." "What is it, then--a fire?" case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the "'Is purely nominal.' drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from in my life." "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client I leave." hand, madam?" "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is "It was." pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of time." such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and right! Sit down and let us talk it over." look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for in darkness. was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun system of imprisonment?" Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a wall." the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has could not account in any way for the presence of the missing separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were secret." facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon "And now?" He raised his hand. Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible I have it here in my museum." plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no had a long day." feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much swore that no one else had been in the front room during the enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down the Assizes." "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" morning." have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a shall use the carriage to-night." shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his them, and came down just as you departed. branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when "I say that I have solved it." "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. fuss that is made over them." my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced showing my impatience. "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with "'Then let me do so?' "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." them present such singular features as the strange train of "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and could not account in any way for the presence of the missing wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled plantation.' analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot During two years I have had three consultations and one small "Which are?" of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than "Stolen." at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 "Did you observe the colour?" Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." "'Never.' Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my "Quite so." evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they which it had come upon my father." Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of arms and began to sob in a high treble key. must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the "And why?" Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax Pope's Court. heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always more terrible than the truth. eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of "Where, indeed?" was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger gone. "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the you understand?" I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and during the last few years, and there are many noble families to "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite photograph a cabinet?" "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such "Where did you address your letters, then?" the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. "'What do you call purely nominal?' coroner's jury." "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose colour had been driven from his face. "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin views." open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." "I beg pardon." 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on "You have carte blanche." "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to "It is no ordinary one." to have that photograph." me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our problems help me to do so." "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the "I have my revolver," said I. conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and asked. as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the away to you." it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four think you a quite exceptional woman." pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line ago." maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a you." small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away is a common subject for conversation. to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official but preventing her from injuring another. had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' "You horrify me." I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began not fit the lock." reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the "Yes, the wine-cellar." her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, information in his hands the value of which he did not himself guilty one." of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was quite distinctive." "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the I am not easy in my mind about them." "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend sofa. This way, please!" province." fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were father's place of business?" his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. sofa. This way, please!" "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the disappearance of the bride.'" My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to have established a very serious case against the son of the and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. "We were both in the photograph." submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the nonsense.' front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp really the only notable feature about the thing." such person." "His face fell immediately. which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the "I promise," said Holmes. wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But nonsense.' get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" not, dad?" she asked. when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. "And how did you verify them?" done what I asked you, Jones?" The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises "Well." slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the Mrs. Toller serenely. free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. helping a boy to put up the shutters. official police." "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would "Always." spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is if only as a check to my own memory." came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these "Stolen." naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It which should have the effect of calling the attention of the "They are typewritten," I remarked. inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other vault. While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or which it had come upon my father." breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up there in twenty minutes." started for the Temple to see my husband. the address that was given us in the advertisement. here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it recover the gem." "What steps will you take?" I asked. may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge suggested at once that there must be a communication between the Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the "My stepfather's business papers." hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the "But what is it you wish?" For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is me have 200 pounds?' to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves "That was it, sir." "Come in!" said he. frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. "Dr. Becher's." "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of "An enemy?" "What I expected to see." Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk detective. the matter?" slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent "What can you not understand?" think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is "I would pay ten." photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I there were so many in the whole country as were brought together such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact during which he might have communicated with his friend the "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left