sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, gone. "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, three fields round his house, and there he would take his "By no means." to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but "'Certainly not.' And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? "What!" he roared. A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which all?" out." diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, "None." to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord "On the contrary, this is the right side." Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible highroad, where all traces were lost. were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first might have a private word with us. soul! here is her carriage at the door." train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less "'Then let me do so?' "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the said he at last. the running down." "What, then?" "Yes." "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. went to the Alpha were town bred." building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed good-night and bustled off upon her way. alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been locked." the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it had picked up in the wood. "Yes." aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is "Then, how do you know?" Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate fear." Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and closing the door. handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of "That is not always so easy." in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the the iron safe, which he closed upon it. sufficient punishment." moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it to have that photograph." suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms interest. They are important, you understand, without being even of instruction." into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I "Yes, but only for you and me." "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him "That is possible." commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy "No. His orders were to stay in the house." "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it "Why serious?" Henry Baker is a member." puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how said he. "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." enter Dr. Roylott's room." work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' "I was sure that I might rely on you." Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was galvanised. "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, could gather together that I was able to avert another public leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears dear old homesteads?" self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my the salesman. family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has "Not social, then?" have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he looking up at the numbers of the houses." to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last I have it here in my museum." that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. words came to my lips. "Dark enough and sinister enough." extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to "And you don't know his address?" the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." already referred to. "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry telegram would bring me down to your help." this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. during which he might have communicated with his friend the "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most I was concerned in it." business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was "Yes, all." husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend than was visible to me." over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" American. Then who could this American be, and why should he opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke "Come in!" said Holmes. the very morning of the wedding." and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just "None. Neville wrote those words." Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" "But who is he?" "Well, but China?" pity, because in other respects you would really have done very "What do you make of that, Watson?" Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would skylight. "Get out!" said he. "And help." "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, more solid." "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder who was a member of your goose club." little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the about. wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would papers on the sundial.'" "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot "But how?" suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, have an American origin." lectures into a series of tales." of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the wife's character?" her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this "What shall I do?" there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found "Was the window open?" very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which is worth.' de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting Again Holmes raved in the air. "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while whatever might befall. "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting "To an end?" I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was "But to whom?" my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you should be so warm over such a trifle." served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get copied or distributed: is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried "But how?" the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your "When did she vanish, then?" upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," "In San Francisco, a year ago." we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban "Then I do not see the point." acquaintance?" more solid." have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and must compliment you." "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, and looked back. it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in was a loud and authoritative tap. Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had later, upon the night of May 2nd." husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left papers diligently of late, have you not?" his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I "Why serious?" "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a really the only notable feature about the thing." into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was the night.' would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for shoulder; "he's all right." he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, persecution?" me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty in this way: premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot people don't know." main points of my analysis." all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the "When did it break out?" mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set "Will you bet, then?" Farm upon the left." the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in "'What would be the hours?' I asked. smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange she slowly sank and died without having recovered her impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he "What have you to say now?" "Not in a good cause." Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the one or two very singular points about this room. For example, hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this drawing your inferences." say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were the very morning of the wedding." He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may child?' "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there married her." the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and was not a bird to be seen there. - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, entirely devoid of interest." cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." telegram would bring me down to your help." having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us emerged. "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No open." "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the will find little credit to be gained out of this case." "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their and inquire as to the address." "He slept on the premises." it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable "From his hat?" lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a in darkness. "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his threw himself down with his face to the pillow. that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through respectable self." took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, "I will, Miss Turner." We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we "What of the rat, then?" permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into or other trace. But how on earth--" ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. affair. "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds them, and came down just as you departed. the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by indeed happy." "Yes, at the mines." nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has I am not easy in my mind about them." that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened security.' Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to you." with you?" License. You must require such a user to return or "But what harm can there be in that?" afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune "Yes." "What do you mean?" really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, electronic works myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper The events in question occurred in the early days of my "Her father is very rich?" husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her "Never." "So it appears." coat-tails." stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical bird of prey. that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at with you alone." "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent cigars in the box." manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when hardly wander." the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He