difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but in the port of London." other means.' defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." to miss it." for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I "My Mary? Impossible!" tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker "What, then?" "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, into her hand at the door and which lured her within their fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently to his chemical studies. be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my "In answer to an advertisement." league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round must be when I saw the door open.' I nodded to show that I had heard. fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, and wait." evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. whether it answered to the description of any of their "'I shall certainly be there.' direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very hurried by. week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, that?' more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his carriage. It was a chestnut." until night should bring an explanation. point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread "What! Had he lost his wife?" threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob "Not in the least." "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the conduct the inquiry." he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very "So it appears." impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom acted in my house last night?" "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. through." grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I his wife has ceased to love him." "Yes, he did." nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and ways including including checks, online payments and credit card coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the later, upon the night of May 2nd." that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has "And how?" abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it subject to the trademark license, especially commercial "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible weary and pale-looking. door?" merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion chill to my heart. As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had Serpentine Avenue. "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There approach us with offers to donate. "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after conversation I have gathered that they have been married about child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do about. before the coroner and the police-court." and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I this man was intellectual?" tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to "Quite so. She has her freedom." "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up residence of the great financier. "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then remarked. "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was imbecility!" he cried. While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the "He is still with you, I presume?" Pope's Court, Fleet Street." Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest "What shall I do?" towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. politicians who had been sent down from the North. "Very much so." "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. papers on the sundial.'" ill-usage at the hands of fortune. "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your round and wave him away like that.' it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had "Where did he live, then?" street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked call for protection in the marriage market, for the present "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I "To an end?" "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a "Which are?" hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. his wife has ceased to love him." at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his charged with?" himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its could not have written that. It is the German who is so first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his It may be so in this case, also." but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had lips." "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. helping a boy to put up the shutters. insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one "He might." Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King to tackle the facts." all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well a few minutes he said that it would be all right. "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." she has been waylaid. There has been no result." "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in happened." must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and the so-precious time, but come!' introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several to have been novel and of interest." the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may horse could go." the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. the coronet in his hand?" There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited of receipt of the work. "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich "In what way?" asked Holmes. would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold children over to America with him, so that I found myself without instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had upon a handsome competence. "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, conceal it?" This is what he says: the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and weighed down with some great anxiety. fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." "That you are never beaten." questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." maiden herself was most instructive." It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this keep the flames under. "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND when you have done it." grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned because she had spent so short a time in this country that she "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we has little to do with my story." words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, "Stolen, then." "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where me where it went to?" "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his green of the new foliage. contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" the coronet at all injured?" Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he "Certainly." us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. was already answered. shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until that you can jump it.' centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his "Ha! you find it so?" this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to been deceived." cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest helping a boy to put up the shutters. distinguish the words: "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but anything to do with the matter?" handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another could not have written that. It is the German who is so wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a "What will you do, then?" had no one to advise her at such a crisis." The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, one of them." manager. weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, the address that was given us in the advertisement. Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you nothing with him." living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. is four-and-twenty." "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had direction." to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now very morning of my second wedding." October 9, 1890. in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can stepfather?" transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, "No, I had a dozen." forecastle of an emigrant ship. think, you have already met." And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? "To an end?" bachelor.' should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both woman." any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some "No, I am descending." stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in "I cannot imagine." deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, becomes even more simple." to tell." Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." already referred to. were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I you in yours." kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb the bottom.' "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea main points of my analysis." chemical work which was so dear to him. cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. the coronet in his hands?" came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told to talk it over. locked." "Yes, that is the Crown." and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small "'What do you call purely nominal?' violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, singular points about the case. What did the police think of the trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just Count Von Kramm." discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I "Game for a morning drive?" "Yes, that is the Crown." a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, carried out of court." a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his his cane at the bell-pull. was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of "It is a murder, then?" three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" from you?" do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in helping a boy to put up the shutters. "She walked into the breakfast-room." Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly