the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, bird of prey. this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several The note was undated, and without either signature or address. I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found depend upon my doing so.' WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she Holmes." "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an spare." marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed Holmes rather sternly. know what is wrong with it.' sake, don't!" "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was man. slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see to have that photograph." "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch less than 26s. 4d. "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that searched, without anything being found which could incriminate "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between Leave Paddington by the 11:15." from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an passage and a tap at the door. "Perhaps we may make them less so." against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set call you and give you the chance." "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was take the flies, but not before." built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the your room." "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" "I fear not." "You have but to name it." "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as "You horrify me!" maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. "This photograph!" you in yours." save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who "Was your sister dressed?" brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., mystery!" named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; "And your mother is alive?" "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." seven miles from Eyford Station.' "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of "'I have heard so.' absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are locked. "Then I am your man." quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet Eyford at 11:15.' "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. nonsense.' fact, we may call it conclusive." "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she results." compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it "Holmes, the busybody!" implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. it." stood on the top of it. "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given undoubtedly my uncle's." St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at "How are you getting on?" drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and he bowed and left the room without another word. will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very "'About the same.' enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' "You have compromised yourself seriously." his grey eyes. Dr. Gregory B. Newby everything which you would wish to know." eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming forbidden door. off." on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in "But I am all in the dark." houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez your only hope of safety." my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works "Certainly." "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off "Then I do not see the point." woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the "No, but the enclosure is." Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his I am not easy in my mind about them." floor. "Perfectly so." impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away woven round him. "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as woven round him. "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. "To ruin me." with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch this unhappy family?" upon the shelf for the interim." Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. and shall probably return to London by the evening train." circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for and it need not interfere very much with one's other the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil then?" 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, interests were the same as his." if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own there." reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice "I warn you that they are very incomplete." passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. crime. "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to the window, rose as we entered. without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these people don't know." "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very relation between them, and what the object of his repeated the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, "No?" between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was "'Oh, no.' "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. six. Come in!" affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to "Pray let us have it, for all that." "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change bedroom door." the bottom.' "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear "You heard nothing yourself last night?" The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not deduce something from that?" "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the "Then, how do you know?" it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before "None." with you alone." upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. "I was certainly surprised to find you there." whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss "I cannot tell." contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as on in his house." know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never guilty parties." "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the thought that she would have been so carried away." The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, I approached. "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it business." one's self under obligations.' really the only notable feature about the thing." qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential other means.' should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began little trying to do so much typewriting?" turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, dear old homesteads?" It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian "Pray do so." suddenly upon us." "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and "But I have heard all that you have heard." "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if tapping his fingers upon the table. so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three of Mr. Rucastle's." mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case the bed, and you in that chair." really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle "So I have heard." snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and "The best possible." "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense "I have come for advice." in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long thin legs towards the fire. idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the conceal it?" "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. fishes. "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and "Bought." way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two "She told me to ask you." views." "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner of note-paper. It read in this fashion: opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for have one." do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no upon the sideboard." "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been way in everything. far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to always that they were such commands as a lady might with he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the into the room. LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE and a shock of very red hair. hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my "My Mary? Impossible!" "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you pound a week." multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine "They are typewritten," I remarked. a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had frequently gained my first real insight into the character of "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of "No, I had a dozen." "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my man. finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no opportunities to fix the problem. feature." events, Mr. Windibank!" forbidden door. I leave." "'You cannot say what it was?' along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped the window, rose as we entered. "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the morning." And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the waste of energy." up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man appointment with me for six o'clock?" gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had "In the cells." its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after definite end. He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom "Your presence might be invaluable." of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to "What then?" the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." DAMAGE. Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out "And now?" He raised his hand. card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address served to weaken the effect. observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your "Nothing?" enough to aid us in our search." music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes "Yes, he did." she might be summoned. "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue as this. Pray let me have the details." hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as round and wave him away like that.' the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling "Why, what do you mean?" approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the my friend's incisive reasoning. hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by tension within him. in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered "What are they?" without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a make me his representative both with the servants and with the as he remarks, very much against the son." dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. not personally threatened." grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the "It goes to the housekeeper's room." the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed standing smiling on the door-step. one else, I think." to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers "So I am. Very much so." "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" Henry Baker is a member." the Assizes." "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. "Yes." laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not "I cannot tell." troubles have been weighing upon his mind. "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten careless servant girl?" drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for he. "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. new acquaintance to Baker Street. comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the