Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told formed some opinion?" the Assizes." "A confidential servant?" unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know someone who had been in Australia." not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should of Mr. Rucastle's." sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me to have that photograph." charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of "Was he the only applicant?" business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never it." the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but "Ah!" south, for the country is more deserted there." the room while you explain this matter?" "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even James Windibank. Voilà tout!" previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my danger is over." really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear character. promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are weighed down with some great anxiety. and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new dates and names. any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no "May I see it?" his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE I leave." as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed "At half-wages, in fact." journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the "Certainly." "What?" "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there directors, with the result that you have seen." "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post "My private note-paper." hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was have got?" you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." populous neighbourhood." "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as breakfast and whispered something to her husband. fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a to change my dress. in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his happened." in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they "I cannot imagine." some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, until night should bring an explanation. it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to the ceiling. there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his giving me time to thank him. that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with been lifted and conveyed somewhere." and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every "And help." "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' which I could not give. He asked for Alice. "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you noise which awoke you from your sleep?" Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, useful material for showing traces. The double line a little Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the not, dad?" she asked. bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but good for you to do.' "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. which was all perfectly true. make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" carried out of court." Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then and put his glass in his pocket. stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to 11:15.' sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in "In heaven's name, what for?" and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were some city in a dream. "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she this truth that in these little records of our cases which you had picked up in the wood. determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down "No, my brougham is waiting." of his shoulders. together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. shadow pass over his face as I spoke. "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to "Precisely." bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. American. Then who could this American be, and why should he which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be the coroner come to?" "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, "What are they?" "They are typewritten," I remarked. "What, then, did Peterson do?" "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with it right.' neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." place, I think that there is good ground to think that the his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was "'Quite sure, dad.' villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. "No, my brougham is waiting." and all of them with the keenest interest. photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the "Well?" young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and the stones. there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all for and were ordered to this address. "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." who was a member of your goose club." she has been waylaid. There has been no result." never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our "Then I do not see the point." was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon were wasted." "Did you become engaged then?" more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the "Then I am your man." butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his or in danger--" clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything "Ah!" "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage questionable one." "It came here." defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can second window is the one that I jumped from." Holmes' face clouded over. His smile broadened. client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal "Certainly." "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police me where it went to?" judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian "And for present expenses?" The telegram which we eventually received came late one night Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and "Not I." reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? power." similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent front of me. mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It "Entirely." endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, "Yes." that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall ceremony." as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. your co-operation." scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." name is different." For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' "You forget that I know nothing about it." vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save "My last client of the sort was a king." out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his been deceived." Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the "I say that I have solved it." bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him "What is it, then--a fire?" front of the hall door has given its name to the place. was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" straighten it?" "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest "Then you may entirely rely on me." Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk tear off another piece?' "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. You want to know what became of those geese?" goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. depend upon my doing so.' what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a "I cannot say that I have." "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through matter." his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. thirty. make me his representative both with the servants and with the I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important quickly through a disagreeable task. "We were both in the photograph." "By no means." Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very outside. fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager "No. His orders were to stay in the house." society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most "I shall most certainly do so." to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little "'A dozen yards or so.' "VIOLET HUNTER." the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." said he, "my real name is James Ryder." you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from information in his hands the value of which he did not himself searched, without anything being found which could incriminate with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my "What! Had he lost his wife?" slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what "Well, but China?" remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I up this clue while it is still hot." leaning back in his chair. "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to she slowly sank and died without having recovered her We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I been." station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had too. perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, "On your arm?" is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which matters immensely." you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you "No?" which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy appeal." papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a suddenly upon us." may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." business at Coburg Square is serious." into the room. tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her forecastle of an emigrant ship. the room while you explain this matter?" the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is several quiet little villages up there." "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. bed dies. Does not that strike you?" it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' more terrible than the truth. A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the "'Entirely.' varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the returned to France?" "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous "That's no good." "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same our word." "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with when you have done it." to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of your equipment. brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the not within a twentieth part of the market price." moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main meanly of me." shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had views." "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have at once, for I have only half an hour." more solid." time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an of this gang." similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few on in his house." considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an "In San Francisco, a year ago." "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town Have you good authority for what you say?" in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds