whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a lamp. "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my fattened it expressly for you.' "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. "That you are never beaten." the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, bachelor.' "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a "But what will you do?" quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and "I think that I had better go, Holmes." "And who is her maid?" points in connection with it which never have been, and probably that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke strong and stiff." The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It one of them." inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the at my own good fortune. "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, enough to aid us in our search." Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society London for the present?" We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my new duties?' whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon plantation.' the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. experiences." position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the "What of the rat, then?" look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing did not hear it also.' be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." "In the cells." shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you useful material for showing traces. The double line a little lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah fire. You quite follow me?" invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it you in your example." remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination "No. What a strange idea!" "Very murderous indeed." ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat of Mr. Rucastle's." is acting for the best. "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which undoubtedly my uncle's." enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" "It is no ordinary one." I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our believe that I should never have any practice at all. better in every way that they should make their position a little making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I as noiselessly as she had come. cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow might help us?" I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several "It is solved." We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir with the outside air!" these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes the child." very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, I nodded to show that I had heard. Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent hopeless attempt at recovering them." after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your himself in a perplexing position. "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the bore every mark of being an average commonplace British on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father manager. "But how did you gain them?" strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle in a friendly supper." as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" the ceiling. and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon have had none more fantastic than this." a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. Street. yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while corner of the building. bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. throat." Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." the window, rose as we entered. manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP "Then I can wait in the next room." orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard "Yes, that is the Crown." what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were "It's nothing of the kind." he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love how narrow had been my escape. know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated seen the man in the road." there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a kindly on the shoulder. "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set "What do you mean?" "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and "I answered that I had not. continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been What do you deduce from it?" stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how "And I to find an enemy." as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric vanished into the darkness. "He said that you could solve anything." of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour "'Quite sure, dad.' served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get you in your example." looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have "It is his hat." "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads one of the states of the Union." case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If "I cannot tell." thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of "What of the rat, then?" liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal will take you up to see the machine.' devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was "I warn you that they are very incomplete." "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can address. Surrey." official police." views." It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to III. before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon the coronet in his hands?" "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight "Upon what point?" her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it "Is he quiet?" this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a in. "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your may have an influence upon European history." Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying silent! Oh, he will be silent!' reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I detective. I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond "My opinion is in no way altered." with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear you." Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed redistribution. "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, "'A dozen yards or so.' At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for security.' "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He "So it appears." "Certainly, madam." maiden herself was most instructive." it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew "It looks newer than the other things?" away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the "I cannot as yet see any connection." the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside enough to aid us in our search." thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." "Who was the criminal, then?" "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear footfalls from the street. overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but "No." how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, "Come in!" said Holmes. card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned better in every way that they should make their position a little think you a quite exceptional woman." transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, a room. "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was "Then you may be so with me." side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get recover the gem." work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George London for the present?" "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker my friend's incisive reasoning. the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and existence." would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or "'Oh, no.' gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. introspective fashion. would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was ventilator." idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, like gravel from a pit.' grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and "Can I be of assistance?" "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I think, you have already met." soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad presented which may be striking and bizarre without being "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the train.' if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." during that time.' the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' to change my dress. smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all this Miss Turner." the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, points in connection with it which never have been, and probably said he at last. "How often?" occupations.' but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer "Quite so. She has her freedom." the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached the Assizes." He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any awkward doing business with an alias." invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among "I think that I had better go, Holmes." to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the he. pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It at my remark. "You horrify me!" horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in and files of the old papers, following the future career of every which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." "How on earth--" every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings directly by questioning you." "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From Serpentine Avenue. "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." and have this put in the evening papers." certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in stood on the top of it. "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a such person." story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are new acquaintance to Baker Street. "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your "What have you done?" asked Holmes. and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" to me. from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss carpenter."