see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I the Friday. Was it to be in church?" word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third "I have my revolver," said I. "You have carte blanche." "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream returning from some small jollification and was making his way said I. "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. forecastle of an emigrant ship. cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project carried out of court." and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the "I have seen the police." noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you him!" way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see you for a few hours?" window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do dead, shall be safe with us." him nearly every evening." unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know of the one which your family is now devouring." a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever been with you?" "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for so far?" The telegram which we eventually received came late one night "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the "'A dozen yards or so.' me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so waste of energy." Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at with some details as to your case." succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. quick march!" I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in to surprise her." could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left away into the river." him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and beyond words. some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, "And what then?" the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That Dr. Gregory B. Newby "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something carpenter." firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office "It is very clear." "There are none." presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean power." "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that which should have the effect of calling the attention of the confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips one's self under obligations.' the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through "I see many objections to any such theory." "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' question you as to those details which seem to me to be most Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" "Oh, the cause is excellent!" dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. very old mansion. The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from question," said Holmes, smiling. solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The question you as to those details which seem to me to be most "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped The police have openly confessed that they can at present make truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the strange features which were associated with the two crimes which "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he nights." gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight "None. Neville wrote those words." hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman prepare for the new role I have to play." conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I cheerful." in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the "Have you her photograph?" "I should like to see him very much." lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, him to be an active member of the medical profession." road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had "Then you may be so with me." "Yes." may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from really the only notable feature about the thing." the iron safe, which he closed upon it. "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission ourselves in the office." ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were highly," said Holmes. hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and you." "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, "Murdered?" "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall "And help." Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down and put his glass in his pocket. "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, than to us. reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events "And Miss Sutherland?" inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His Count Von Kramm." The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not my friend's incisive reasoning. "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' waste of energy." this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as be sorry for having acted so harshly." just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his "But of what society?" and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. "Then I am your man." "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. again." THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I of fine shops and stately business premises that they really don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and despair." "Of what?" "I saw her in conversation with her maid." of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and "I say that I have solved it." than to us. story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought "By no means." "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must go back?" dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you matter over." the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as forebodings. LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! upon a handsome competence. "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was you want, then?' that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. "That you are never beaten." "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the occurred." down. Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end "You saw the ventilator, too?" "And why?" "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once "No." "I cannot imagine." gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, will not take me long to tell. at a side door. come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. sufficient punishment." fat-encircled eyes. "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, "Eh? What was that?" of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and breakfast." Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see information in his hands the value of which he did not himself opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly was shining brightly. extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran "Yes, only one." Holmes' face clouded over. Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the "But I am all in the dark." question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations existence." come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. respectable self." assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his drawing your inferences." husband's writing, madam." offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late approach us with offers to donate. noise which awoke you from your sleep?" elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out photograph?" the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. galvanised. errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate "Never." I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He did not hear it also.' place of silver." him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right to that open window." and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. face and glided from the room. Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your everything which you would wish to know." nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, ordinary clothes on?" perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not "10th. John Swain cleared. "I cannot say that I have." prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to "I would pay ten." bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to lamp in his hand. Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, "The knees of his trousers." "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in walking." "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of question you as to those details which seem to me to be most she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers are, and they are waiting for us." which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to relief. Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to help us in this matter." red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open arms and began to sob in a high treble key. that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, "Yes?" "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my formed some opinion?" "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite You can understand that this register and diary may implicate so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's since then to throw any light upon what became of him." eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door "But I am all in the dark." to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their "Murdered?" former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" the matter." with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing bill, which interests me deeply." the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came "An enemy?" have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a weary and pale-looking. "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the them, and came down just as you departed. "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided bed dies. Does not that strike you?" bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." few hundred pounds.' letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." present." "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the "What have you to say now?" tapping his fingers upon the table. Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my of this gang." "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to him nearly every evening." fatally injured? concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a ourselves in the office." it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the humiliation." was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were