year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very six. Come in!" likely to be some crony of the landlady's." the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other Count Von Kramm." keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement "What office?" believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian "I would give my fortune to have them back." next day. The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment "You heard nothing yourself last night?" meant." "'Yes, I promise.' common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email was not a bird to be seen there. "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. with the outside air!" "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to "It is a murder, then?" "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was directly by questioning you." LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander observed. notes," he said. out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very skylight. road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall "I should like to see him very much." in his power. me. You must get home instantly and act." value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." works. See paragraph 1.E below. Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and "And your mother is alive?" squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat morning." "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a copied or distributed: Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and tell me that you intended to go into harness." She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid better in every way that they should make their position a little "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which of a light. Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague nonsense.' "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less three fields round his house, and there he would take his step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then as this. Pray let me have the details." precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not memory. ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called 1.E.9. coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name you came in." narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling "'What, the red-headed man?' "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the and no precautions can guard against." Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from "I have solved it." master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the all that?" chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a very old mansion. might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees "What of the rat, then?" cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong have not had my rubber." must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do bare slabs of marble. was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it success. fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, "But his lameness?" singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing grasp, he hurried from the room. place, I think that there is good ground to think that the get her out of the way." remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. beg that you will break it off." consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the electronic works Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every away in different directions, and I went off to make my own acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional "But who is he?" back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he woven round him. chambers. photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking words came to my lips. work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in suddenly upon us." of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it will he say when he returns?" seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in page at http://pglaf.org recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the "I was mad--insane." any." dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's again, where I was soon asleep. her also." neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your "Stolen." "'Ample.' much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, both be extremely obliged.' "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that "We were both in the photograph." sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in had died away into the silence from which it rose. insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have writer." the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be heavily into it. possible that we could bring him back to her? and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to "Perfectly so." had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the and the colonel ushered me in. upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria garden below. your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the "'No, I know no one in these parts.' laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue the window, rose as we entered. rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking coroner's jury." husband's writing, madam." "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with "But how could you guess what the motive was?" dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend but preventing her from injuring another. Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, and effective." congenial hunt. "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. investigation." away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical shaken than I had ever seen him. over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his nothing with him." wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me bird I ate is country bred." one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by to talk it over. explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across be there in time for your coming." conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we "'I shall certainly be there.' an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. Young McCarthy must be got off, however." "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of "And you thought he was pulled back?" left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled did not hear it also.' will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, some water from a caraffe. "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if as he remarks, very much against the son." "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the highly," said Holmes. was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the impression behind it as though a window had gently closed "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. salesman. astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed "You have but to name it." even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must "I do." "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. must compliment you." "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the "Have you it here?" cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might "I am sure." which it had come upon my father." planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began "You are hungry," I remarked. wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still test if we have an answer to our advertisement." cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He note?" Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything into the room. doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting as he folded up the epistle. built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. been deceived." "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, was used.' himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' down in his armchair and closing his eyes. 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the sooner or later she must fall a victim. "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE arrested. You then--" simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my words came to my lips. "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked her also." know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical detained." stood on the top of it. "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." the nursery. misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for "An accident, I presume?" who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in "On Monday." appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are "It was." whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a remarked. felt?" habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally questioning and rather startled gaze. despaired of." "Why? What do you mean?" hopeless attempt at recovering them." ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. few hundred pounds.' paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? again before evening." upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from prisoner's face. ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have where we are going." against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who his face. "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I "He slept on the premises." and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it walking." feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. have accepted such a situation. in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the "Was he the only applicant?" old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the interest. They are important, you understand, without being "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not "What can you not understand?" there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I "Your presence might be invaluable." to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which "None." silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal ashen face. given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it nonsense.' "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney "I think that I had better go, Holmes." became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I "You don't mind breaking the law?" There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long sufficient punishment." of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." "It was." advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, would apply.' "Proceed, then." "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, have an American origin." "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very forecastle of an emigrant ship. "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll exactly what you advise." "It is to him that this trophy belongs."