"I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley "An accident, I presume?" the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring before, for it was considerably after midnight. a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever bore every mark of being an average commonplace British salesman. "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our bled considerably." of his shoulders. came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a unprecedented a position." and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many "Certainly, madam." "Now, then, what's the last entry?" have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may fled together." thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a returned to France?" so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a "Pray let us have it, for all that." said he. into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. carried out of court." "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual suddenly upon us." outside." as yours." conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years said he at last. "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." "Did he not advertise?" "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes once more to my work. "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon me, and I could not think that his explanation of the eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' "Awake, Watson?" he asked. we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of "Never." inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that "On the contrary, this is the right side." leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated "It is possible." however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies wedding?" Young McCarthy must be got off, however." "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their "What then?" charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a Surrey." "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we out of this horrible affair." "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they despaired of." "What?" question. know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who during the last few years, and there are many noble families to pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. Eyford." had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the third from London." believe that I should never have any practice at all. the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry "Yes." three fields round his house, and there he would take his "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." "I never have." "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. begin with, and I had not got mine yet." step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock "'Where to?' "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and wanted for ourselves." lids now and glanced across at his visitor. "My stepfather's business papers." "You think that he is dead?" was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see burst out into a roar of laughter. centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, chance." with frightened eyes at his accuser. red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply grasp, he hurried from the room. sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in "But you have hopes?" Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually "'What do you call purely nominal?' that you saw all that I did." "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his fattened it expressly for you.' Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock do you make of it all?" into her hand at the door and which lured her within their "It may not come to that," said Holmes. "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and "A call for help, you thought?" them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, to-night?" I asked. "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the "'In my own bureau.' fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a "Come in!" said Holmes. to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one of them has the shutters up.' access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. "At what time?" that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, "Certainly." "I will, Miss Turner." paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of started for the Temple to see my husband. "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was was a perfect sample of the class. was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now your troubles." telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his have had none more fantastic than this." shag which I had seen upon the previous night. he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. to have that photograph." chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to events, Mr. Windibank!" "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some said I. for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three "Not him." was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in "BALLARAT." the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, conceal it?" from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this "Were they all fastened this morning?" "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of "No." call it cruel." All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing the window, rose as we entered. eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The and effective." shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, "That also I could fathom." "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I footfalls from the street. for securing the situation." bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her the room while you explain this matter?" "On Monday." light and attacked it." beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR indiscretion." The summons was a brief and urgent one. rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, "Why did you pick him?" "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the During two years I have had three consultations and one small reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might "The vanishing of the lady." "Not in the least." as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the kind enough to tell me what I should do." "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some "Certainly." appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have that you saw all that I did." to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the "'Yes, sir.' been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his ill-usage at the hands of fortune. ashen face. had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and wedding?" without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible leaning back in his chair. "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." swore that no one else had been in the front room during the India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached any little problem which you may submit to me." "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." "'Tell me all about it,' said I. business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative copied or distributed: "Yes, that is the Crown." throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' your only hope of safety." formed some opinion?" do.' "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a Holmes." saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." what do you think they found in the pockets?" "What do you make of that, Watson?" utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small business." all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All writing, and yet I know it well." receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim washing it down with a long draught of water. had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly business." a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of "I will get her to show me." "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always which are rolled in Rotterdam." have accepted such a situation. companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been away to you." utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first "Yes." back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that "Married! When?" doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are closely." "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The the house with me." rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the him. was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the The note was undated, and without either signature or address. anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It the matter." guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. "Then you may entirely rely on me." may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over "ARAT," I read. to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said "'Yes, sir.' heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of was feeling which was the fattest.' ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident "Then what has happened to him?" were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his "And why in hopes?" these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked James Windibank. Voilà tout!" remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question promised to bring home. where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a Young McCarthy must be got off, however." and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more test if we have an answer to our advertisement." all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police sound at heart." notes," he said. half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to you in your example." There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, once more on the important position which you have been fortunate certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the skylight. old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something an introduction to him?"