Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to "I would pay ten." an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. "'Never,' said I. so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, as yours." of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to "At half-wages, in fact." "VIOLET HUNTER." come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel read over the extraordinary announcement. any little problem which you may submit to me." friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter "No." back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had little adventures." slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," you want, then?' is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, meanly of me." simple cases which are so extremely difficult." "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her time." this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. "It was a confession," I ejaculated. have been better. It is all right." arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my happened." was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not Cross for the Continent." "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive "How many? I don't know." believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." hard-headed British jury." London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded that you can jump it.' part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black the tragedy. "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" rooms." folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an Arthur Conan Doyle I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. his forehead." married her." bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see was feeling which was the fattest.' other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put was it brought him the coronet? "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who into her hand at the door and which lured her within their Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, chance at all." opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country "Not him." wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was existence." believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before ceremony." I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the some mystery and the punishment of some crime." deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a weighed down with some great anxiety. with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with fait accompli?" appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt quick march!" "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are "My private note-paper." roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little "No bad?" "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather once more on the important position which you have been fortunate matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having outsides of the windows. facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind the matter?" my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of then?" be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been "Oh, yes, easily." "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do "Where did he live, then?" "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking foot. pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very "To an English lawyer named Norton." him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest again on its way. "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by "And how did he make his money?" "Perfectly so." "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave "So I heard. You have him here?" its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. "Why serious?" "I don't say that. Perhaps." gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are minor matters until to-morrow." round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would round with crates and massive boxes. "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear mysterious business." round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. "You think that he is dead?" his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously husband's writing, madam." Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat is now desirous of getting those letters back." "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of points to suicide?" "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately your co-operation." "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. our word." "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless "What have you done?" asked Holmes. would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works room. "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. that?' lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered "I would pay ten." necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." at my own good fortune. fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let gentleman's clothes. "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little "At the wedding breakfast." black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. house for five minutes.' makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion looking up at the numbers of the houses." "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a thin legs towards the fire. "Is he quiet?" off." "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a "How on earth--" rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." go back?" photograph a cabinet?" "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she "Now, then, what's the last entry?" Miss Holder?" applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir unclasping of his long thin hands. and the colonel ushered me in. ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from "Not particularly." think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all "And how did you verify them?" "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough ventilator." him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of if only as a check to my own memory." object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough the very morning of the wedding." "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her name is different." tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more where she found matters as described by the last witness. "Get out!" said he. Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to just ask you whether you had heard it.' However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and His name is Francis Prosper." the nursery. from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful "He said that you could solve anything." you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking impression behind it as though a window had gently closed that before taking the final step I should like to submit the harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had said Mr. Holder. which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying these bleak autumnal evenings." "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it of Fenchurch Street." I have it here in my museum." sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But "Then you may be so with me." that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers triumphant cloud from his cigarette. question," said Holmes, smiling. See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy way in everything. gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. keep the flames under. be there in time for your coming." your co-operation." "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes hurried away. "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and and wait." him and tried to hold him back. I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be tell him that I know him to be innocent." back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must II. colonel looking down at me. speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and writer." "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the and shall probably return to London by the evening train." "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I strength." subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses bird I ate is country bred." dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely Where does the thing come from?' "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the "Whose house is it?" which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it once more. matter." Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I article?" master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a McCarthy's innocence. idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the it." You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to allusion to a rat. with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest "My stepfather's business papers." were wasted." of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when "Then he might have called to you?" an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who of the vacancies.' which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, client, rising. "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new look upon these things in a different way." could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. guilty one." as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let "The best possible." one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would carried out of court." screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an daring than any effort of the imagination." plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very power." your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you "We have tried and failed." the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the think that any burglar could have done. he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy fled together." the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand "When did she vanish, then?" "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do with you?" the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming in this note: 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was The police have openly confessed that they can at present make beg that you will break it off." "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the "It is possible." my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of "Then I do not see the point." direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may soul! here is her carriage at the door." has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old stammered. "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was in this way: presume?" in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. which it had come upon my father." "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful cigars in their mouths. and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building