ourselves in the office." "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" one or two very singular points about this room. For example, hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. "'Which dealer's?' habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. present." you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any Sutherland. of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands friend's singular character. affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is promised to bring home. twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as is acting for the best. and laid it on the table. The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a "Why did you beat the pavement?" heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect morning." from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no window when the police appeared." immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured possible that we could bring him back to her? "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average gives a meaning to it." light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from "Holmes, the busybody!" "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a be best to do. refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for my secret was safe in his possession. "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and of his shoulders. London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in the Assizes." the coronet at all injured?" "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the "Not social, then?" a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this upon a handsome competence. "Perhaps I have." "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my *** START: FULL LICENSE *** the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with "VIOLET HUNTER." facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears the room while you explain this matter?" October 9, 1890. man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow "What is it?" Mary, has deserted me." "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. "The gentleman I describe." up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and "But he might be a bachelor." upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, you do it in twenty minutes!' performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works bare slabs of marble. "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' "Ten will be early enough." made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. "What steps will you take?" I asked. side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then cost them two and thirty pounds." before the coroner and the police-court." in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." one of them." man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been ordinary clothes on?" so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock "That also I could fathom." Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from I shall communicate with you." result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very "No. His orders were to stay in the house." rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt shag which I had seen upon the previous night. thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of "Quite so." too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case despair." "You horrify me!" sufficient punishment." "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do read it out to me." the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever "Did your wife hear all this?" "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall meanly of me." it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all "'About the same.' of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who entirely devoid of interest." least a most suspicious remark." "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This "In the cells." said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been "And for present expenses?" "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, "Yes, only one." been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have not fit the lock." "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they useful material for showing traces. The double line a little creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire and it need not interfere very much with one's other buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was excitement. I took the paper from him and read as follows: "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been eat it." although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside appeared upon the scene." your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong of receipt of the work. deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" deduce something from that?" felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up his knees, staring into the fire. passage and a tap at the door. Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the "No, distinctly professional." father's young wife. flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in one of them." Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch "Indeed! Whose, then?" the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said "It is his hat." closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a is," said he presently: house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by "Yes." Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back to a more successful conclusion." it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder weapon." had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and breakfast." looking up at the numbers of the houses." eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some will he say when he returns?" But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I to-night's adventure." through." "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. locked." and put his glass in his pocket. housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You business." I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." "But not more so than I to find you." hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and your sleep?' voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he populous neighbourhood." these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she "By train from Waterloo." "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round certainly do as you advise." think that any burglar could have done. "And now?" I asked. donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate his face which made him a very different person to the round, once more to my work. might have a private word with us. its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that "May I see it?" from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight better grown goose." "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of awkward doing business with an alias." "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were "I am to be neutral?" paper in the air. collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of congratulate you again." in one or two places in England?' "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it promised to bring home. "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" "Will you bet, then?" You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked II. kindly on the shoulder. call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me to have been novel and of interest." once more to my work. "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was to go into your room and bar your shutters?" absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an his eyes and forehead. grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no details should find their way into the papers. Inspector in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where here and I will read it to you: "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of night.' said he. presume?" this unhappy family?" had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year outside." terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am tightly behind him. lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle if I call to-morrow?" feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! "Perhaps we may make them less so." "She showed me, as I told you she would." really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I prisoner's face. makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the passage and a tap at the door. had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her generous with you in money matters.' with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than "Where, then?" I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, appeal." turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press important." air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of "That is possible." convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an already been minutely examined." they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, bore every mark of being an average commonplace British liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old fluttered off among the others. say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of But Holmes shook his head gravely. all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with south, for the country is more deserted there." is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" "At what time?" and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell closing the door. Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see prison!" the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now them present such singular features as the strange train of young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly *** START: FULL LICENSE *** village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. "But of what society?" "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that garden below. certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He points to suicide?" can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case "It is possible." Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking