"And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young have accepted such a situation. liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as "He disappeared so suddenly." profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by for and were ordered to this address. you." have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. to tackle the facts." chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over directors, with the result that you have seen." learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, "On Monday." "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce "Do you go out much in society?" "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with forecastle of an emigrant ship. "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my read it out to me." His name is Francis Prosper." in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. think you a quite exceptional woman." the bed, and you in that chair." For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his envelope. "By all means." bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting breakfast?" "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly a very grave face. on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. been able to understand it, in a very few words. "I will, Miss Turner." "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father easy-going way." without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and I think that I could be of assistance to you." dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at whole matter to your consideration." suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the "Frequently." papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged "Nor running a chance of arrest?" "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in indiscretion." think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have in my life." "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. so far?" "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my "Holmes, the busybody!" give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the "It is no ordinary one." and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" becomes even more simple." daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He "And how did he make his money?" extraordinary contortions. took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to for securing the situation." I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. "Certainly." suspect him." "Yes." first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every who was a member of your goose club." "Proceed, then." There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can "How about poison?" and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes the stable lane now." could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which "No." Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently amused." chill to my heart. travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small "How did you trace it, then?" Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring he bowed and left the room without another word. silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses more terrible than the truth. hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am way in everything. other, as fresh and trim as possible. over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But both be extremely obliged.' "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." "Well, but China?" his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of carpenter." the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. the child." have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, an introduction to him?" fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal "What steps will you take?" I asked. "I cannot think." "I am still in the dark." "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. shall use the carriage to-night." "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. situation." "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual might have a private word with us. journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was Countess of Morcar's?" "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him "I will, Miss Turner." arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my your only hope of safety." there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when astonishment. Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen What do you deduce from it?" They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length notes," he said. go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' "Perhaps I have." across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. danger is over." John Swain, of St. Augustine. steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a Street. form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." just ask you whether you had heard it.' "On the contrary, this is the right side." more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, too. directors have had misgivings upon the subject." "I cannot tell." possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest of." "'A dozen yards or so.' "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their appointment with me for six o'clock?" "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every "I guessed as much." company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the "'About the same.' and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. is a common subject for conversation. over part of the map. "What do you read?" this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I "Where did you address your letters, then?" "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was asked. that I may have something better before very many minutes are thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is "Witness: Nothing definite. "No. What a strange idea!" "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I "I cannot tell." more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I went to the Alpha were town bred." am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about his knees, staring into the fire. in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there one's self under obligations.' became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really society." "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the voice, changing her seat as requested. the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and best detective that ever lived. I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson read it out to me." all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It gigantic client. "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the vault. his grey eyes. and the whole place is in a blaze." Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. "You know me, then?" that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from notes," he said. down from London to inquire more deeply into it." gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on eavesdroppers?' solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to "Seven!" I answered. hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. Holmes rather sternly. brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the photograph?" it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were "You are certainly joking, Holmes." "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. carpenter." on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear "I am armed." practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have entirely devoid of interest." tear off another piece?' any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed the tragedy. for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, "Thank you. Pray proceed." settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the this Miss Turner." drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and "And how did you find out?" bed dies. Does not that strike you?" withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, as yours." was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do had died away into the silence from which it rose. shaken than I had ever seen him. probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house writers could invent nothing more crude." you came in." Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must me. I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." "My private note-paper." pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he "Then I can wait in the next room." found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with approach us with offers to donate. has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for "What have you done?" asked Holmes. When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not "Not him." laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no and capable of preserving a secret.' exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four forecastle of an emigrant ship. "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to without a word or a look. with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table "He slept on the premises." "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little "No, my brougham is waiting." roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, "You have a clue?" over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and of his shoulders. "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." the coronet in his hands?" unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich long narrative. alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and "It is very clear." the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of this unhappy family?" "Well, some hundreds of times." lost nothing by them." no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's with you alone." public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when case before our client came into the room." Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched sentimental considerations in the background which would induce these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and security.' and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small spark where all is dark to me." encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." "Yes, it was twisted." observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would upon the white wrist. superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand used to be." "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial with the outside air!" continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from overpowering excitement and concern. "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found II. "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy