my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his note?" he died? I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded "That is it on the dressing-table." colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his imbecility!" he cried. you." touch that coronet?' pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It in this way: "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my singular points about the case. What did the police think of the all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue "And now?" He raised his hand. "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would "Yes, all." "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the that you saw all that I did." "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg of Fenchurch Street." and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of garden below. when you have done it." named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" and wait." explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked up this clue while it is still hot." "Thank you. And your address?" Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." "Entirely." was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." followed. "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I go back?" the very letters. But what is this written above them?' possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. followed. "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE Henry Baker is a member." certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you carriage. It was a chestnut." "'What do you call purely nominal?' "An enemy?" "'No, I know no one in these parts.' and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a "'You cannot say what it was?' I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage "She told me to ask you." what is your own theory as to what took place?" was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, purpose equally well?" passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying me where it went to?" "You are certainly joking, Holmes." "We were both in the photograph." round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" bears upon the case?" never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not any little problem which you may submit to me." would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace the Friday. Was it to be in church?" begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it memory. any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which the dangers which encompass me." "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy "He is still with you, I presume?" main points of my analysis." friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to just called myself is not exactly my own." "One horse?" interjected Holmes. struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. "Yes, it would be as well." "Then you may be so with me." And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon with frightened eyes at his accuser. soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of wife's character?" "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. even of instruction." "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most "One of the highest in England." Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you I am not easy in my mind about them." the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a always that they were such commands as a lady might with forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His clanging. upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the arrangements." need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and father's place of business?" death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old the driver. almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or "Precisely so. But how--" "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be Stoke Moran." cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," colour had been driven from his face. whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. but preventing her from injuring another. more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a "Nearly eleven." day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of that before taking the final step I should like to submit the yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, me. You must get home instantly and act." obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." six. Come in!" great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the enter Dr. Roylott's room." and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade Does that suggest anything?" "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue asked with his eyes open. observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can woman." considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United the night.' "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He British peeress.'" which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had "'What would be the hours?' I asked. second." very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, to miss it." lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be "And Irene Adler?" the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. "In the cells." of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with "He is dead," cried several voices. "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the must be when I saw the door open.' Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with and shall probably return to London by the evening train." Stoke Moran." I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like "And I say east," said my patient. was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the anything to do with the matter?" my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my British peeress.'" dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the entirely lost his self-respect." of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. had died away into the silence from which it rose. DAMAGE. one's self under obligations.' "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any "Did you become engaged then?" "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose standing smiling on the door-step. James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case other means.' prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, it with his own hands." all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." sake, don't!" increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be weapon." "'Why that?' I asks. shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. "She told me to ask you." fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside rooms." http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ outsides of the windows. not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the orange pips. Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered "Will you go?" "Oh, fresh and glossy." all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, empty. were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, Edgeware Road. to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, "But I am all in the dark." to-night's adventure." your troubles." "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another union?" "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late remarked. chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some three of the beryls in it, was missing. had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment neither fascinating nor artistic." "He is dead," cried several voices. "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. "Not social, then?" Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be hands. "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts http://gutenberg.net/license). seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you "I will not look." creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at cigars in their mouths. intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would despair." used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney this as likely?" "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to writing, and yet I know it well." lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of right! Sit down and let us talk it over." ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that together. been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you how narrow had been my escape. the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner "What, then, did Peterson do?" last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, Holmes' thin, eager face. man. I know him from the photograph." broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the such person." "I was certainly surprised to find you there." "And on what day did he meet his death?" wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the "Absolutely?" determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and business?" individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the relief. circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who "And how did you find out?" inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his "10th. John Swain cleared. reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I already been minutely examined." himself to hunt down. "'A dozen yards or so.' another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally straightened it out again. up this clue while it is still hot." opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main "How many? I don't know." I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic "'What do you call purely nominal?' produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. coroner's jury." is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I persecution?" pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more "And when will you call?" His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between opened the door, and slipped through. against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any "On Monday." Mrs. Toller serenely. "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head "What! Had he lost his wife?" 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this delighted to hear it," he said. "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. joking. me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend "How did that help you?" "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a fled together." solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many "What! You do not mean bodies?" places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know "Has he come with you to-night?" "It missed him, then?" for its centre. lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in "And did you observe any change in her then?" "'Never,' said I. son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong "That is also quite modern," said the lady. maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a ago." arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in,