meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. "None." if only as a check to my own memory." copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend "What!" he roared. Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with *** START: FULL LICENSE *** ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was round and wave him away like that.' afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure The summons was a brief and urgent one. have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of conversation I have gathered that they have been married about handed it to him. "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece waste of energy." other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the "Deserted you?" sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close in a very precise fashion." "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. "What will you say?" stood on the top of it. He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's "Was your sister dressed?" thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from impression behind it as though a window had gently closed Watson," he said cordially. forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand "The doctor?" seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. returned to France?" of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something her also." "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter outside." us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in introspective fashion. violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just before the coroner and the police-court." "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me "I would pay ten." "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in to-night?' chemical work which was so dear to him. have accepted such a situation. or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." that classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my "A call for help, you thought?" inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get had formerly been in part my own. abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at "Yes, it was twisted." "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could "And now?" He raised his hand. have been better. It is all right." he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, "Where to?" "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of asked. Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead shoulder; "he's all right." "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the "That is possible." "To the police?" the very letters. But what is this written above them?' tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, "It was a confession," I ejaculated. beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been "Where, then?" same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors that he will be back before evening." "How about poison?" august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in papers must be those that are destroyed.' no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key true." hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate generous with you in money matters.' name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my it." for and were ordered to this address. "I have solved it." face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive already been minutely examined." John Swain, of St. Augustine. look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, tension within him. not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been speckled band?" seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with married her." pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged strong and stiff." congratulate you again." "I came to find a friend." "What!" he roared. "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I Miss Holder?" "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt letters?" late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure the coronet in his hands?" "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole "What steps will you take?" I asked. accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to that he has suffered." "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My "'And the work?' the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" ventilator." "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have eavesdroppers?' third from London." landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, "Is he quiet?" answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off with the outside air!" is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, at my remark. "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco definite end. weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She ran thus: "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the "Then I shall certainly come." into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could the best of training." Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to his huge brown hands. address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird "How did you deduce the select?" by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, suddenly upon us." many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would But Holmes shook his head gravely. "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast searched, without anything being found which could incriminate other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love "I am still in the dark." them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND carried out of court." "None." "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, disappearance of these gems?" that I can to serve you." "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." "Nearly eleven." "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a "I will not look." - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies I was concerned in it." tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey me upon any point which I do not make clear." The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, From what you have told me I think that it is possible that right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent looking up at the numbers of the houses." very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time might help us?" weapon." Street. "'And what salary do you ask?' 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a the warnings." re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. the Red-headed League." http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have "I am sure." "He said that you could solve anything." "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." things are very often connected not with the larger but with the begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera "Yes, that is the Crown." accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the "Absolutely none." first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as with you?" companion imperturbably. "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless "Tired-looking or fresh?" that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which be.' "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left "How did he come?" shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are "No legal papers or certificates?" "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between "And how?" "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and "What steps will you take?" I asked. stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the o'clock is it?" this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 lumber-room." shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked unkempt, staring out at me. "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable "But how?" but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what conclusions. idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of right! Sit down and let us talk it over." brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" "And I say east," said my patient. "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, you in yours." this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had During two years I have had three consultations and one small strength in the others." McCarthy." "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and some mystery and the punishment of some crime." her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I may never be exposed to such a temptation." equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had some place of shelter and let the county police know what has "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. "In the cells." I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the could go. "What have you done?" asked Holmes. "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for seven miles from Eyford Station.' from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and hands. my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since three fields round his house, and there he would take his grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if helping a boy to put up the shutters. "Did your wife hear all this?" "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, fear." "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to house for five minutes.' parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, later, upon the night of May 2nd." had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this he died? the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but fat-encircled eyes. "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient "'You cannot say what it was?' than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' "I saw her in conversation with her maid." "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." during which he might have communicated with his friend the this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You was already answered. process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his your co-operation." It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered bore every mark of being an average commonplace British old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your envelope. Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not "And you can do nothing until then?" be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call my special province." for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. Where does the thing come from?' general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of head. So long, then!" realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the should be taken.' would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner some water from a caraffe. his cane at the bell-pull.