was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down get her out of the way." at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both you." my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for never will be, entirely cleared up. "Well." original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the really the only notable feature about the thing." side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the "Yes." interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the these bleak autumnal evenings." a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My II. "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you most important business. It is probable that he will be away all "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. the tragedy. outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat in one or two places in England?' "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through "Yes." stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to not come at once?" case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the or other trace. But how on earth--" "Pray continue your narrative." had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. society." Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. papers diligently of late, have you not?" country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and "You know me, then?" usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a "And why?" shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United *** START: FULL LICENSE *** "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood that I can to serve you." note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that anything to a woman, for she would have her way." "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are "Could he throw no light?" as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked "I am about to be married." was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, "I see no marks." daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we the matter?" "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible my secret was safe in his possession. The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until sufficient punishment." you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for "Come in!" said he. journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who already referred to. nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush "'What would be the hours?' I asked. "No sign of it?" recover the gem." "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose official police." arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to coat-tails." other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself key of the affair now." in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two The police have openly confessed that they can at present make "No, but the enclosure is." client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, Doctor, of the paper and the date." better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in murdered man." until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates I. In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what present." George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in galvanised. creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, during the last few years, and there are many noble families to "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local "Not him." "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and hurried away. 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm giving me time to thank him. them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client "BALLARAT." relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to recover the gem." all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white "No, distinctly professional." always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings humiliation." They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and "No." that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel good-night and bustled off upon her way. "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should it right.' "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now me. the warnings." deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' "Dirty?" Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to "Never." to affect your life." Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the "And why in hopes?" the matter." clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen undoubtedly my uncle's." until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out companion imperturbably. insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a woman." going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less where we are going." very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was the night.' strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, one of them." more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" during the last few years, and there are many noble families to then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of served to weaken the effect. diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A minor matters until to-morrow." as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, young Openshaw's." "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that page at http://pglaf.org come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering detained." call you and give you the chance." Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will shag which I had seen upon the previous night. "Seven!" I answered. souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. girl said." look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This handed it to him. the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a "Dark enough and sinister enough." out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the speckled band?" hardly wander." was not a bird to be seen there. own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his yet." Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most "I am following you closely," I answered. preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. "'And the work?' of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve business came to an end." "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous "'There is a drive, then?' very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the "Certainly." the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, he bowed and left the room without another word. subject to the trademark license, especially commercial and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little "Yes." outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. the matter?" Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his events, Mr. Windibank!" the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to "And I." "One horse?" interjected Holmes. for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole up this clue while it is still hot." expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray the bottom.' "And why?" "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin "I am to be neutral?" "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing hurried by. and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, "Her father is very rich?" one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up His name is Francis Prosper." then?" disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. "'I have already given you my word.' would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock "You have but to name it." contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." you for a few hours?" lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, is now desirous of getting those letters back." standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. least a most suspicious remark." which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make enter Dr. Roylott's room." once more on the important position which you have been fortunate Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a with the outside air!" I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and one of the states of the Union." in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside daring than any effort of the imagination." "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very light and attacked it." have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in reach." the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a "'Tell me all about it,' said I. hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a strange features which were associated with the two crimes which "In which, sir?" moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit "Perhaps I have." front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. "Yes, sir." the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of congratulate you again." moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were her also." presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the "The gentleman I describe." not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the always that they were such commands as a lady might with the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who "Yes. He waved his hands." A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. locked." "I was afraid that you were engaged." "I have come for advice." It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to "Yes, I have one waiting." "Yes, it would be as well." "Only as much as we can deduce." greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the friends, not even his own brother. upon the sideboard." carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we if only as a check to my own memory." address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a suspect him." Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events "Not social, then?" valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid "How are you getting on?" "Yes, there are nearly always some there." play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout at once, for I have only half an hour." used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at "It is solved." foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I the bottom.' and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his at my remark. and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. works. She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a against a man in the prime of life?" Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were