"You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ "I was certainly surprised to find you there." "There are none." At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled new duties?' James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a "How can you tell that?" "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." thin, with a long, sharp nose?" brandy and water within his reach. village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. unprofitable." single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, without a word or a look. providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." side. minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" absolutely follow my advice in every respect." such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so "Frequently." was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, room. at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual this as likely?" has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far to tell." never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll you." He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that of his shoulders. I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his ways of our fellow-men." of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers she used." "I think that I had better go, Holmes." I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in "On the contrary, this is the right side." here and I will read it to you: Lee, in the county of Kent." Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his child?' Holmes' face clouded over. post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place you understand?" gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; kindly on the shoulder. I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any "Entirely." matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could "Do you go out much in society?" at a side door. thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he if she died from some sudden fright." manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and outbreak?" but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was "Yes, at the mines." ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband "Not social, then?" opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is "I will get her to show me." that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? examine." "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with is acting for the best. rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not shall not find me ungrateful." wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when interests were the same as his." and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said your own bird, so if you wish--" permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be any more." my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain gone. company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack which I could not give. He asked for Alice. Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of to talk it over. "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such before the coroner and the police-court." that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the never to learn it at all." against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate wanted for ourselves." of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything carriage. It was a chestnut." tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." Mrs. Toller serenely. forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the "My dear Holmes!" "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if "Deserted you?" Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of when you have done it." absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' "I am about to be married." in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your beyond words. ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of "Only as much as we can deduce." and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, License. You must require such a user to return or With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, "Thank you. And your address?" to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might "Frequently." of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where McCarthy's innocence. servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand know all about it," he snarled. pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here noise which awoke you from your sleep?" to arrive at through this?" of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San again on its way. believe that I should never have any practice at all. but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing "How did he come?" kind enough to tell me what I should do." but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real just ask you whether you had heard it.' c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." your equipment. attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you "Do you receive much company?" he asked. or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen congratulate you again." possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that the King without delay." recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an shall use the carriage to-night." asked. a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' "But you have hopes?" office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been "What is it, then--a fire?" "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring back alive. "Not I." woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to "Was the window open?" thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable "Your presence might be invaluable." what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which had picked up in the wood. of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have me upon any point which I do not make clear." wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between "The murder was done with it." either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was situation." 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at over here." not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the But Holmes shook his head gravely. "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's "Yes." surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. noting anything else of interest. seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me vault. opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but despair." "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, "I would pay ten." then?" at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" it right.' "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before "Nothing?" "What, then?" circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. affection." I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from "How long did she speak to this Alice?" therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me me. was it brought him the coronet? The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down guilty one." crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." prison!" elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to or other trace. But how on earth--" room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" "I think it very unlikely." even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." "Ah, but I was recommended to you." into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the father's young wife. circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? your billet.' salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes weary and pale-looking. the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, "How did you deduce the select?" discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. Holmes rather sternly. case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning derbies." off." "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a crime." "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain "I am still in the dark." Holmes. is so. I know all about McCarthy." waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to appeared upon the scene." "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my IS This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' Have you good authority for what you say?" moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from examination of the premises, but without finding anything which "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock go from here to the Strand." contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." "No, I think that I'll take it." lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was ceremony." bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." quick march!" and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by "Quite so. She has her freedom." at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. I took the paper from him and read as follows: long narrative. no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of new duties?' there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where good for you to do.' laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you "You don't mind breaking the law?" of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. I leave." down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party acted in my house last night?" he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and digesting their breakfasts at home." relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, "Proceed, then." present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think guilty parties." drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely depend upon my doing so.' to have that photograph." the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my arrangements." thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally