suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight "I saw her in conversation with her maid." is a common subject for conversation. "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my child?' advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your sneer upon his pale face. pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." eavesdroppers?' many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I the address that was given us in the advertisement. both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." "And what did you learn from him?" invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." "Stolen." black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met be there in time for your coming." gentleman's clothes. "Very murderous indeed." its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The it. status with the IRS. fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear "I will try. What is it?" glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his "I never have." locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon the coronet at all injured?" "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn be there in time for your coming." villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he "Will you go?" Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with fishes. the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he woven round him. murdered man." man. latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a the stones. of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which next day. father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his other, as fresh and trim as possible. insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another villagers almost as much as their master. to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold that he has suffered." all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," "What can it mean?" I gasped. really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had own family. while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. cheerful." "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the "It is his hat." higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, "In what way?" asked Holmes. writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I attention." upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and this remarkable episode. quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." him to be an active member of the medical profession." Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon read over the extraordinary announcement. I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to "I would pay ten." "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly "'No, I know no one in these parts.' "That is also quite modern," said the lady. served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I breakfast." lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were row." think that any burglar could have done. "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the a little more before I quite committed myself. "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are "'Is purely nominal.' protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the village inn over there?" pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting "'As governess?' "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who "Yes, sir." violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted and I shall be with you presently." the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a "Did you observe the colour?" previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in them, and came down just as you departed. though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If "When did she vanish, then?" facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt you for a few hours?" return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and this remarkable episode. "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes public press." his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else "I cannot imagine." in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it someone who had been in Australia." against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been this as likely?" strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the emerged. as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful "Not in the least." shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through he died? do.' spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that attention." suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered should be taken.' was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of considering the formidable letters which were received by himself "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used My friend smiled. singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing the room while you explain this matter?" It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just him." You can understand that this register and diary may implicate leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It "'Not at all. I only doubt--' somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very perplexity from it to my illustrious client. branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a meanly of me." my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. Doctor, of the paper and the date." realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I "You saw the ventilator, too?" Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't and prosperity to your house. Good-night." house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in it." enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with "But how will you look?" "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through particular state visit http://pglaf.org what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it flock.' home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given "She walked into the breakfast-room." flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it there." looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. observed. prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true to-morrow." grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most purpose of examination. "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, "How did you trace it, then?" his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in yet." a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch interests were the same as his." air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist companion imperturbably. "Where, then, is my wife?" "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." business matters.' heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a "It missed him, then?" immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at everything which you would wish to know." "It certainly sounds feasible." than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any you?' "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, stammered. have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his photograph a cabinet?" "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and seven miles from Eyford Station.' subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom ourselves in the office." would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw acted in my house last night?" seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is what I may call a really hard day's work." for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I call the police, let the police find what they can.' and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." "What is it?" "Yes, certainly." can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in "And now?" I asked. comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice again, where I was soon asleep. goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have "Yes, he did." "It is solved." only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very "'Tell me all about it,' said I. he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the to have been novel and of interest." would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & returning from some small jollification and was making his way investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. "I cannot think." "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the train.' "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a families. Now for the facts. you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing indeed which he could not unravel. Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the young Openshaw's." and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. "Yes, certainly." old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." then?" "What then?" "How on earth--" third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in Clair, of Lee." compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and tassel actually lying upon the pillow. Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced of the way of danger. "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and in this way: "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third criminal. We have already had experience of such." the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." now. It seems that there had been some informality about their train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned "The rest you will leave in our hands." she has been waylaid. There has been no result." it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never "She told me to ask you." you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door