she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, seem to you to be relevant or not." recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my highly," said Holmes. pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they present." "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, than to us. "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I and inquire as to the address." scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the invisible to me," I remarked. conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign yards of it?' "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very yourselves in at night?" stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid "What office?" be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which look upon these things in a different way." am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she lost his Christmas dinner." Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For remarked. red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of away in different directions, and I went off to make my own "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue already been minutely examined." who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I a room. were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped you found me to-night--and running through the front room she is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then husband's writing, madam." which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty But Holmes shook his head gravely. pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and "I have come for advice." Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall Watson," he said cordially. across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and very peculiar words of the dying woman?" "I was sure that I might rely on you." few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, his face which made him a very different person to the round, work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my hurried by. It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch "What steps will you take?" I asked. where she found matters as described by the last witness. tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that to-morrow." building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have danger is over." "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that I was concerned in it." of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This foot. laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to jewels which you have stolen?' "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a "Can I be of assistance?" planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the tail." "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at "I fear not." upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what "No." which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the had this final quarrel? the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of me, and I could not think that his explanation of the "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see any." explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of might have a private word with us. to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the "Game for a morning drive?" cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called come either from the window or the door. My attention was "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us will not take me long to tell. back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall bedroom door." Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by "It is possible." "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said nights." discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was his face which made him a very different person to the round, James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California "Do you receive much company?" he asked. right! Sit down and let us talk it over." points in connection with it which never have been, and probably conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to instincts rose up against that laugh. the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a and all of them with the keenest interest. the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and http://www.gutenberg.net "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a "Yes, only one." say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come for its centre. Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good into her hand at the door and which lured her within their low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do weigh very heavily upon my conscience." congenial hunt. "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall "You'll never persuade me to believe that." "'Yes, sir.' "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. his cane at the bell-pull. Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a "Never to return." "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was discontent upon his features. "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my that there was nothing in it, after all." you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' colour had been driven from his face. truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the remarked. this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, cost them two and thirty pounds." "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to "How are you getting on?" the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall "My Mary? Impossible!" years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered drawing your inferences." "How can you tell that?" "So it appears." been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous arms and began to sob in a high treble key. straighten it?" and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it "I saw her in conversation with her maid." Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking the warnings." to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in of it with the greatest attention. brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. have been better. It is all right." "Well, some hundreds of times." give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a Pope's Court. "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. Pope's Court, Fleet Street." his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old "Here?" dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal "Did you observe the colour?" jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless the coroner come to?" "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? "I have seen the police." "And sit in the dark?" yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. the iron safe, which he closed upon it. analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had me what he had done with the three missing stones. my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after "You think so, too?" of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was could gather together that I was able to avert another public plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer "So I am. Very much so." that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind and it need not interfere very much with one's other week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with "The knees of his trousers." his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. Surrey." "I fear not." been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," "You will not go there first?" "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed vanished into the darkness. of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" developed." southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his "Pray do so." refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to "The decline of his fortunes, then?" "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single if I call to-morrow?" breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I "'Yes, it was gone.' circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important said I. conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a way: "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, have an American origin." when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no "Texas, I think." We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let as he folded up the epistle. in his power. "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the off." America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by "Then he might have called to you?" of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg the coronet at all injured?" out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at "Why, what do you mean?" foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and and glanced through. He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a "The King of Scandinavia." husband's writing, madam." woman who has had her own way to make in the world. thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was mystery may be cleared along those lines." provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I are, I think, all that we need." very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, murdered man." him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the "How do you know, then?" breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. all-comprehensive glances. opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over sofa. This way, please!" "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time "Precisely." deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital the bottom.' charge against him will break down." "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. question you as to those details which seem to me to be most income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, "And how did you find out?" one of the states of the Union." memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' "In answer to an advertisement." "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to furiously. pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something of receipt of the work. Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at what I may call a really hard day's work." We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND "Dark enough and sinister enough." he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, "'I have already given you my word.' to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which to go into your room and bar your shutters?" "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." row." problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door "Have you her photograph?" The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he "Get out!" said he. In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door,