surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I vague figure huddled up in the darkness. maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks was it brought him the coronet? black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been that you saw all that I did." About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and go back?" deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady "And I." from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into client, rising. "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he new duties?' for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense which should have the effect of calling the attention of the it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" "Then I can wait in the next room." much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, "I cannot tell." daring than any effort of the imagination." This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any "Get out!" said he. "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, "And Irene Adler?" used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right think that any burglar could have done. "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your unprecedented a position." was already answered. forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, "'Yes, I promise.' "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you nonsense.' matter." who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my to-morrow." running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead served to weaken the effect. "Bought." fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a During two years I have had three consultations and one small cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he "Entirely." "And now?" He raised his hand. part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came views." with you?" him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate "Not I." exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress "You horrify me." with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, ourselves in the office." the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the "'Yes, sir.' betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his DAMAGE. waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a foot. comes from the middle window." "I cannot imagine." "I don't believe it." roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a I think that I could be of assistance to you." eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." "I know where it is." but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike hour?' quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. the night.' confronted him. to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the fait accompli?" unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, minor matters until to-morrow." "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young "But I have heard all that you have heard." "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of drawing your inferences." glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me father's young wife. "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and "But how will you look?" the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be good for you to do.' ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been breakfast and whispered something to her husband. ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the them present such singular features as the strange train of suspect him." grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his "I should wish to." "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide with some details as to your case." habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are his forehead." used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." delirious. sound at heart." room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" as the one I chose?' suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind cheerful." old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the "No, finished." will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my make me his representative both with the servants and with the Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he "It came here." corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence gives a meaning to it." That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been "You heard nothing yourself last night?" combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the and the whole place is in a blaze." to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were narrative." that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which of note-paper. It read in this fashion: "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight October 9, 1890. their singular warning or token before them when starting upon your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It "You horrify me!" Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" any more." "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, from you?" Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" threw himself down with his face to the pillow. "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce "I cannot say that I have." the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and "And how did he make his money?" nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in had this final quarrel? relief. coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or "I should like to see him very much." of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black that, and I came down." office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then views." occurred." "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the stepfather?" will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two said he, "my real name is James Ryder." whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home "Well, some hundreds of times." suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I "'Oh, no.' south, for the country is more deserted there." part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in "And who is her maid?" thought that she would have been so carried away." Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your advice." had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is the salesman. cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered to-morrow." written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my quick march!" so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get "My own seal." could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the mystery may be cleared along those lines." here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully a few minutes he said that it would be all right. those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away thin legs towards the fire. "I say it is." once more for Briony Lodge. "Pray do so." But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, existence." passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of south, for the country is more deserted there." nights." Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the wedding?" transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in wanted for ourselves." "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her "'I have already given you my word.' remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" Lestrade of Scotland Yard." is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." "We must sit without light. He would see it through the collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such you want, then?' And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom you?' events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned dates and names. and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works other lovers by making love himself." thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature must compliment you." suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us constraint." Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to strength in the others." foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." "Yes." hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless "And how did you verify them?" nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than "One?" calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune affection." "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn o'clock is it?" science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in "But to whom?" about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the relief. "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in gives a meaning to it." "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to "Look there!" said he. "But what will you do?" sufficient punishment." in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. "I answered that I had not. compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I from you?" of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in "I will do it." "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future was keenly on my guard against him. becomes even more simple." the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project relation between them, and what the object of his repeated conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a outside." the King without delay." it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As his grey eyes. retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in presume?" have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," round and wave him away like that.' "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love indeed happy." would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern "But not more so than I to find you." pound a week." fear." 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for reach." homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." works. "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. point our research must commence, and we will begin it by unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very there." that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." "And you can do nothing until then?" "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the narrative." It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is "Yes, all." I nodded to show that I had heard. This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular go back?" the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, me, and I could not think that his explanation of the "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry to surprise her." member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might the south-west, I see." of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded have established a very serious case against the son of the skylight. comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. goes." rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his Arthur Conan Doyle considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.