not come at once?" "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of signal between you and your father? "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time "Witness: I must still refuse. "Certainly." keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down been." "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." "'Certainly not.' "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. said he. including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily "The King of Scandinavia." better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm "Very much so." "One horse?" interjected Holmes. "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." "Do you know him?" another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a during that time.' I. little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. with her." End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by promised to bring home. to go into your room and bar your shutters?" the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his carpenter." wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It clang of the bell. "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we "No. What a strange idea!" terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We "Dark enough and sinister enough." heavy and sharp instrument." but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and and wait." either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." is worth.' work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert "On the contrary, this is the right side." And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle indeed which he could not unravel. age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have soul! here is her carriage at the door." "I cannot tell." fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still strange features which were associated with the two crimes which a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him not within a twentieth part of the market price." you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you him to be an active member of the medical profession." hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with tell him that I know him to be innocent." squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that bird of prey. every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short "Her father is very rich?" "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of answer." London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he Eyford at 11:15.' Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had and shall probably return to London by the evening train." "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most bare slabs of marble. the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was very old mansion. what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe "'What do you call purely nominal?' she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. "'What are you doing there?' he asked. "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a and the whole place is in a blaze." has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would Farm upon the left." her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have notes," he said. "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, "On Monday." considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of of Fenchurch Street." her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself "But not more so than I to find you." "What! a murderous attack?" "I say it is." at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that "'You doubt its value?' he asked. glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and have one." did not hear it also.' Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your points to suicide?" bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" "That is possible." over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some drawing your inferences." of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal "How did that help you?" money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side bedroom door." "Well?" whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper "And how in the world did you find them?" yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug open." To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous humiliation." to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for "And now?" He raised his hand. side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very intrusion of other matters." "Where to?" tell them apart.' "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided "Ah!" "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. round with crates and massive boxes. flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." "Married! When?" Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be went to the Alpha were town bred." stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be sound at heart." of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached ago." affair. insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. married her." "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you "And how did you find out?" burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause relief. way in." prepare for the new role I have to play." "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience John Swain, of St. Augustine. "How did that help you?" without a word or a look. "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from during that time.' "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet "My photograph." open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have the bed, and you in that chair." door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with "Never." "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that "You are certainly joking, Holmes." attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the laugh and put his lips to my ear. about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived there!' was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little vanished into the darkness. in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for "It is half-past ten now." "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to astonishment. about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering make me his representative both with the servants and with the "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid of fine shops and stately business premises that they really to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with "Breckinridge is his name." suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your affection." the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to "'No, I know no one in these parts.' planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive "Then I shall certainly come." We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." little trying to do so much typewriting?" dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached is a common subject for conversation. "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he Again Holmes raved in the air. entirely devoid of interest." "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the one which it was hard to resist. "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have "I have seen the police." "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the Have you good authority for what you say?" sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I "'Oh, no.' villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. to-night's adventure." take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of there!' towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet gbnewby@pglaf.org seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat asked with his eyes open. Gutenberg-tm License. for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, Heh?' enough to aid us in our search." I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms that he has suffered." bed dies. Does not that strike you?" it? Did I buy the geese off you?" listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, chair. to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up nights." Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford "It is to him that this trophy belongs." was not a bird to be seen there. wife's character?" Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they events than those which have happened in my own family." Pool. "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, new duties?' "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here him. in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my walking." that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I be there in time for your coming." before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort conduct the inquiry." coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, young Openshaw's." inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did to-night's adventure." "Yes, sir." case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of "To the police?" before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to relation between them, and what the object of his repeated "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. Street. chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the "But your client--" the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, a room. compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that shaken than I had ever seen him. to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. will find little credit to be gained out of this case." "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked hard-headed British jury." "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By them present such singular features as the strange train of "No?" Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a "'Never.' which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came were wasted." prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you "But who is he?" "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are "But she could not love him." nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the "'Then let me do so?' "Of what day?" "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell,