"His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we Pool. showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. hair?' they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless and your relations to her." "It is to him that this trophy belongs." younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some system of imprisonment?" see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. "'About the same.' the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that you came in." face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical "There are none." "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more bill, which interests me deeply." the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight at my remark. Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so the coronet at all injured?" lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to "Which are?" "She will not sell." Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: important." had formerly been in part my own. that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. the best of training." what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by hair?' been able to understand it, in a very few words. of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, "Thank you. Pray proceed." "No." minor matters until to-morrow." clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He copied or distributed: abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many business came to an end." the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from His smile broadened. as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in a suggestive one." "What is it?" silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction used to be." round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was murdered man." said he. ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached tapping his fingers upon the table. and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. details." "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, "Deserted you?" however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of the ceiling. every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's other, as fresh and trim as possible. "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land "And why?" hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the awkward doing business with an alias." "Then what has happened to him?" age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too "How do you know, then?" friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The place, I think that there is good ground to think that the of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by my little problems." sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the might have a private word with us. be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. "Yes, that is the Crown." studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out "Yes, sir." late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his may never be exposed to such a temptation." had formerly been in part my own. thin legs towards the fire. "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is "Very murderous indeed." It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to "Not I." them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you The telegram which we eventually received came late one night gone. fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle "What will you say?" found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of and the colonel ushered me in. October 9, 1890. has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me "Witness: Nothing definite. the address that was given us in the advertisement. turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid prison!" 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm the matter?" leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. ran thus: you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the to surprise her." I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the dates and names. benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had people in all walks of life. pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of was once confined in the cab my mission was practically these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded felt the room to be a little close.' McCarthy." so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, "'Why that?' I asks. of Mr. Rucastle's." through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. "Yes, he did." Foundation was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off McCarthy." little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come until night should bring an explanation. the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in waste of energy." father's young wife. something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster the coronet at all injured?" give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, "You have compromised yourself seriously." and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly guilty one." daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and next day. "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, other lovers by making love himself." the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to "Witness: I must still refuse. the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for handed it to him. the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to unkempt, staring out at me. Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. standing smiling on the door-step. known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his "Holmes, the busybody!" "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know "None." McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but enter Dr. Roylott's room." was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." in. bled considerably." o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was himself to hunt down. companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. round and wave him away like that.' writer." have got?" bill, which interests me deeply." his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. yourselves in at night?" "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she "Not I." "He is dead," cried several voices. of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a "Yes?" "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." directors have had misgivings upon the subject." "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' over his head with a sweet womanly caress. hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods "You have it, sir, just as it happened." aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon "That you are never beaten." Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. "And you don't know his address?" know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and in a friendly supper." Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it the Friday. Was it to be in church?" is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a you came in." me where it went to?" "You think so, too?" this man was intellectual?" "Your French gold?" "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, business at Coburg Square is serious." case-book, which he consulted. however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, McCarthy." first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something Holmes' thin, eager face. way in." Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must roused himself from his reverie. have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally believe that I should never have any practice at all. should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it McCarthy." Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. direction." fact, we may call it conclusive." singular points about the case. What did the police think of the "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have wedding?" minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, room?" other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to colonel looking down at me. mystery." guilty one." in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure "Yes, it would be as well." you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the strong and stiff." pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery The telegram which we eventually received came late one night second." drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small "None. Neville wrote those words." Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered photograph?" "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. nothing with him." Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully that he will be back before evening." "ARAT," I read. "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the "One of his hands." wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock interest. They are important, you understand, without being "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable "But we can't all be." white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good questioning and rather startled gaze. a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and "Bought." it. back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a room. would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen was lame." of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking "Her father is very rich?" call for protection in the marriage market, for the present "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. may have an influence upon European history." road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I "My own seal." "But of what society?" but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but that he will be back before evening." discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger points to suicide?" "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make "I will get her to show me." "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we companion. again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and go--none." I was concerned in it." tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very questionable one." The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and again on its way. St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' face and glided from the room. electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had and shall probably return to London by the evening train." From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a me, and I could not think that his explanation of the hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then