have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself over with notes and figures. into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger gbnewby@pglaf.org who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than points to suicide?" blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The so far?" depend upon my doing so.' "A greater distance to travel." matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, written. of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work our word." "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE cigars in their mouths. I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until "By all means." as noiselessly as she had come. which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing "Indeed! Whose, then?" may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business think, you have already met." "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a and I shall be with you presently." maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran better in every way that they should make their position a little gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for there is a decided draught." "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and I shall communicate with you." The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious "How can you tell that?" of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond outbreak?" are windows in it, of course?" without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She "How long did she speak to this Alice?" time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' "But it has twice been burgled." Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. "I am all attention, madam." other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange roused himself from his reverie. even of instruction." "But we can't all be." "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his and that he would see to anything that turned up. you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was case before our client came into the room." pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. It was close upon four before the door opened, and a agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since "No legal papers or certificates?" "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their drawing your inferences." "Quite so. She has her freedom." sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny shoulder; "he's all right." merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There until night should bring an explanation. "I should like to see him very much." London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. he. frequently gained my first real insight into the character of have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will thirty. broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest happened." "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but brought there to personate someone, and the real person is change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away "Did you become engaged then?" "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there strange features which were associated with the two crimes which hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly which I could not give. He asked for Alice. remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." tell them apart.' of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. asked. right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and bears upon the case?" person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it allusion to a rat. is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." himself to tell his story. "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should my friend's incisive reasoning. "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." lids now and glanced across at his visitor. With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. nice household for a young lady." shoulder. drawing your inferences." have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, business in the City. She little knew what. "'What then?' I asked. rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a village inn over there?" agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called "I cannot tell." know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, might have a private word with us. two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when the loss of it. from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere existence." at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of breakfast?" his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon points in connection with it which never have been, and probably the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are outbreak?" it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before "'Not at all. I only doubt--' at my remark. took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, open." "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. in a very precise fashion." "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us at once, for I have only half an hour." minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you to that open window." here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it "Entirely." and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic murdered man." was once confined in the cab my mission was practically "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening relation between them, and what the object of his repeated "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. considering the formidable letters which were received by himself brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a garden below. boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' other means.' part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in peculiar to him. snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to back alive. fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few developed." I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether This is what he says: practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, during that time.' assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as But Holmes shook his head gravely. Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project "Have you her photograph?" if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. "An enemy?" conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door been with you?" of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I followed. was used.' name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." the inquest, and which are worth considering." almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some my former friend and companion. better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." closing the door. centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." night.' said he. strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and thought that she would have been so carried away." me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little politicians who had been sent down from the North. to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as your room." "What?" I took the paper from him and read as follows: his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has "Witness: It was. one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is Gutenberg-tm License. Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet "Very well, sir. And this stone?" window when the police appeared." yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, "Get out!" said he. - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look matter." insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one at home. "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. them?" "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he "Here?" Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in happened." "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow "No, thank goodness, she did not." the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous could gather together that I was able to avert another public "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You Street. "But we can't all be." think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some "And I say east," said my patient. connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. "By train from Waterloo." "No, distinctly professional." beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the "A greater distance to travel." Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and interests were the same as his." "Murdered?" crackling voice. Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most more terrible than the truth. dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does into the room. pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your "His face fell immediately. I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to to go into your room and bar your shutters?" you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots "No, I had a dozen." before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only all?" his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a "Precisely." "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he prove to be little relation between the different incidents of America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by his forehead." the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with some water from a caraffe. liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal legal crime." "Certainly." "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be charged with?" just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of the King without delay." speckled band?" sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: "You have compromised yourself seriously." agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a "'I shall certainly be there.' "I do." posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and said I. nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable your most interesting statement." Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened I. "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong "And Miss Sutherland?" It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to "Stolen." Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips You want to know what became of those geese?" once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than me what he had done with the three missing stones. gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of that before taking the final step I should like to submit the the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the case-book, which he consulted. destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad