relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. enter into my head. "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have strength of mind to control. defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" "Her father is very rich?" directors, with the result that you have seen." self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical From what you have told me I think that it is possible that Lee, in the county of Kent." It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong "Then he might have called to you?" "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to completely overtopped every other consideration that we both always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand "A thing like a cleaver," said he. face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me the station." my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand I have it here in my museum." rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us I. "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of "Awake, Watson?" he asked. pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to "Yes." been shamefully used." hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" matter." ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." back to my heart. kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb was lame." "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at reach." "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't as he folded up the epistle. threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in "I was sure that I might rely on you." there." herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to the coronet in his hand?" chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think "I will, Miss Turner." he died? "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so Watson," he said cordially. It may be so in this case, also." "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered one which it was hard to resist. and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and "The Coroner: What do you mean? "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. rose-bushes. persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned "What! a murderous attack?" is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" "How about poison?" "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. status with the IRS. deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which "And how?" silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by call it cruel." gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know and the church but not where the lady lived." or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work morning." "Has he come with you to-night?" sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the "Could he throw no light?" round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that "When did it break out?" relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." call you and give you the chance." exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." "Well, but China?" slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between October 9, 1890. "'And what salary do you ask?' "But his left-handedness." signal between you and your father? LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable "Oh, the cause is excellent!" sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I nonsense.' the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my side. from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has so.' rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! there were so many in the whole country as were brought together save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his me upon any point which I do not make clear." "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their Clair, of Lee." lost nothing by them." time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as key turn in the lock." heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was prisoner's face. "That is unusual in a young girl." begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to "He said too much." away to you." I approached. I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds "Never." "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a occurred." as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his "Then you may entirely rely on me." Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped 1.F. is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too Doctor, of the paper and the date." "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the Where does the thing come from?' most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which a monotonous occupation." has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. "You have compromised yourself seriously." an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to "And how did you verify them?" Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I respectable self." 'I should be able to look after that for you.' summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no place, I think that there is good ground to think that the showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. you understand?" so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when new duties?' front of me. considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double "Why did you pick him?" "Yes." begun to whiten, even as mine has." who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in "A client, then?" not as remarkable as your advertisement." had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his off." He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the that I can to serve you." "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the more solid." my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to that I am arrested." 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to had formerly been in part my own. whole matter to your consideration." ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were maiden herself was most instructive." "Certainly." once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I "It is very kind of you." prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the "Whose house is it?" "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small respectable self." and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned troubles have been weighing upon his mind. once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me "Of Friday, June 19th." is a common subject for conversation. the best of training." wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope at a side door. 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle me. You must get home instantly and act." were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall could not account in any way for the presence of the missing "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post I have it here in my museum." "Texas, I think." wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear tightly behind him. that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George The police have openly confessed that they can at present make case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the bird I ate is country bred." "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual on in his house." took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." "We have tried and failed." London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little union?" Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the a suggestive one." Arthur Conan Doyle "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp to miss it." he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. my former friend and companion. "You are hungry," I remarked. morning." "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very hereditary King of Bohemia." "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the client, rising. were new raised from a basin. address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. "I should wish to." and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a kindly on the shoulder. I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing next day. George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND girl said." the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of highly," said Holmes. "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and "I think that it is very probable." gone. confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while "Stolen." an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such with frightened eyes at his accuser. wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." "'Yes, I promise.' than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was to where he stood hid behind the curtain. you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a "Will you bet, then?" of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I me. man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, or in danger--" my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and "'I have heard so.' broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If to miss it." little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of written. coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears just called myself is not exactly my own." there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an "What then?" as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He points to suicide?" "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I could not have written that. It is the German who is so "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the what is your own theory as to what took place?" "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be this as likely?" "It is half-past ten now." Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, have been better. It is all right." "Then I shall certainly come." "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, arrested. You then--" extraordinary contortions. may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming what these perils are?" reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a