"I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been "I am to be neutral?" "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the key turn in the lock." left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a success. "Upon what point?" he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new fire. You quite follow me?" highroad, where all traces were lost. gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was Chief Executive and Director very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your "And I." "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went you, my dear young lady?' way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. distance from the station, and there we found the young lady "And how did you verify them?" so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" even of instruction." as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came row." those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young "I am about to be married." When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured breakfast and whispered something to her husband. prison!" waste of energy." and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black conceal it?" I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in "That was it, sir." prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we she might be summoned. coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I Watson," he said cordially. girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off charged with?" introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" paper in the air. "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet bedroom door." mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the despaired of." of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, "No. His orders were to stay in the house." helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is "Texas, I think." Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a hurried away. helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no see a sister of mine apply for." often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." have not had my rubber." in his hands." deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the "Nothing?" over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly stalked out of the room. last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander to that open window." natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, bed dies. Does not that strike you?" very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of Literary Archive Foundation slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the "None." "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his "It is to him that this trophy belongs." "I cannot tell." business came to an end." might have a private word with us. maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a Edgeware Road. are, I think, all that we need." conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my "Where, then?" the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ thirty. security.' lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one way in." kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You do.' at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few yards of it?' weapon." dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you Mary, has deserted me." enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: "No good news?" considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that matter over." "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free "What! a murderous attack?" "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of asked. heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a characteristics, but those are the more obvious." "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with was shining brightly. throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up III. me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each was feeling which was the fattest.' brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." becomes even more simple." remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through which our visitor detailed to us. said I. cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which "Deserted you?" It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but are, and they are waiting for us." of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the "You will not go there first?" my friend's incisive reasoning. his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but through." I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your may never be exposed to such a temptation." answer." the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. might help us?" "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." prepare for the new role I have to play." upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, and it need not interfere very much with one's other the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found appointment with me for six o'clock?" I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my conduct the inquiry." ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and away to you." waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging "Well, it is a possible supposition." "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a lost nothing by them." strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that entirely lost his self-respect." "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either my secret was safe in his possession. in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, "How many? I don't know." "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between that you saw all that I did." "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for "It was an hour's good drive." red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that completely overtopped every other consideration that we both point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, of your young ladies.' "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable evidence," I remarked. bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a I. here." murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith "Why did you beat the pavement?" in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small business came to an end." cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting "My dear Holmes!" "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to three fields round his house, and there he would take his yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback the inquest, and which are worth considering." the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this ready to-morrow?' have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the danger is over." 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. really the only notable feature about the thing." back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for fat-encircled eyes. "'Stolen!' he cried. ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am present strange and interesting features that it is no easy "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. nights." "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the neither fascinating nor artistic." he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he "Where to?" brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must "Ten will be early enough." "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." forebodings. in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the not, dad?" she asked. so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when fattened it expressly for you.' as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white "I do." "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but telegram would bring me down to your help." your room." States. fuss that is made over them." man. I know him from the photograph." manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is noise which awoke you from your sleep?" and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this "Did he not advertise?" former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me as yours." hour?' "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, "Seven!" I answered. tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this "Well, but China?" male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it "You are certainly joking, Holmes." I am not easy in my mind about them." Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." he bowed and left the room without another word. that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I away in different directions, and I went off to make my own with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a future lives." more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" "I was sure that I might rely on you." "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has "And leave your case unfinished?" "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. "My private note-paper." "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. "'And what salary do you ask?' latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent all?" on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, note?" spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you "'What, the red-headed man?' "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months "Yes." present." thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both as he folded up the epistle. thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's not as remarkable as your advertisement." his eyes and forehead. gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past "Not in a good cause." out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son sentimental considerations in the background which would induce of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." shoulder. year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which "'About the same.' Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. "But we can't all be." have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with criminal. We have already had experience of such." were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our yourselves in at night?" "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." other, as fresh and trim as possible. Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything families. Now for the facts. his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is followed. down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we I have it here in my museum." good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who purpose equally well?" and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the "You will not go there first?" of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my "Then I can wait in the next room." yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who hour." nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who "Yes, the wine-cellar." maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood "And you don't know his address?" morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It unprecedented a position." used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked and looked back. story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' and effective." feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed