"No, I think that I'll take it." relief. "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low "The Cedars?" the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may strong and stiff." "It looks newer than the other things?" during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who skylight. all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she would apply.' it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. "I have solved it." a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as charged with?" abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a "I cannot tell." You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, nothing of it?" "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, grasp, he hurried from the room. was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and 11:15.' until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My "How can you tell that?" who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet present." my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes you?" that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the new acquaintance to Baker Street. "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think "But I am all in the dark." in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." was used.' really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was "Yes?" sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use key turn in the lock." unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, "Not yet." I nodded again. "Yes." for and were ordered to this address. profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on and capable of preserving a secret.' "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who despaired of." whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. "Which are?" in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" if she died from some sudden fright." writer." stalked out of the room. again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as bears upon the case?" that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." "I will get her to show me." "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very newspaper selections." We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. strength in the others." "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." "Oh, fresh and glossy." pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." opportunities to fix the problem. still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? man. yards of it?' they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every invisible to me," I remarked. "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. could not account in any way for the presence of the missing father's young wife. refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella "Where is it, then?" buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, "And when will you call?" place of silver." His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer putting in the horse. Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. threw himself down with his face to the pillow. the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away said he at last. Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And views." quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding "On the contrary, this is the right side." nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began during which he might have communicated with his friend the "What then?" and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who a good hundred miles off by now." Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, I think that I could be of assistance to you." "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained more solid." notes," he said. natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no to change my dress. passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further "I see many objections to any such theory." advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for Surrey." "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The bill, which interests me deeply." whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." "A greater distance to travel." only touch the interest." "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head learned something! Where are the gems?" better in every way that they should make their position a little "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He examine." down in his armchair and closing his eyes. heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage companion. "He is dead," cried several voices. wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of "I don't say that. Perhaps." "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to gives a meaning to it." increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place the matter." young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him very morning of my second wedding." light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number "It was a confession," I ejaculated. "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the "You saw the ventilator, too?" agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the in a very precise fashion." very old mansion. the window, rose as we entered. "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. only touch the interest." stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four has little to do with my story." drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is humiliation." "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could in a very precise fashion." Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty strength." this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy "Her father is very rich?" Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small one of them." months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow bedroom door." thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. "No bad?" "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to "No. What a strange idea!" "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My me what he had done with the three missing stones. have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by criminal. We have already had experience of such." pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he happened." send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At down in his armchair and closing his eyes. strength." shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, "Perhaps we may make them less so." housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you "'Very good.' best detective that ever lived. ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what "'What, the red-headed man?' danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom "And the murderer?" some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my God! What an exposure! What can I do?" him nearly every evening." will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at congenial hunt. "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he "No." he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, is entirely a question of barometric pressure." Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in this Miss Turner." "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of "Witness: It was. word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I "If so, much may have happened between." feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about even of instruction." my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. "I have my revolver," said I. "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send "No." "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my from the brougham. "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all "'There is a drive, then?' and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. "Yes, all." observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes was keenly on my guard against him. gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he to arrive at through this?" now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You union?" "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time wedding?" this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and good for you to do.' "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. again." iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his "'There is a drive, then?' foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled is now desirous of getting those letters back." "Will you go?" the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not not fit the lock." round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really hour?' my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he "It surprised me." parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me existence." As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate of his shoulders. "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down approach us with offers to donate. succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. important." as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I "Pray continue your narrative." blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of the roots. preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, "Precisely." Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort o'clock is it?" came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house fish-monger and a tide-waiter." seen the man in the road." My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the I approached. "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his absolutely follow my advice in every respect." "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house chance." never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards brain must have something in it." from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. "My last client of the sort was a king." pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight you." of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had "Yes." useful material for showing traces. The double line a little King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic "Ah!" "'It is locked up,' I answered. the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, "You have it, sir, just as it happened." Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning corner of the building. house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. his face. James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a beyond words. very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, was already answered. "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so "'Certainly not.' basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious made his money." feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in "'How far from the body?' have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by troubles have been weighing upon his mind. foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and "My stepfather's business papers." therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. present strange and interesting features that it is no easy looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one heavy and sharp instrument." outside. "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his "No." has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly leave you to your papers for a little."