it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. young Openshaw's." "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has of note-paper. It read in this fashion: pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. four million human beings all jostling each other within the warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. house for five minutes.' elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum bled considerably." upon an income of about 60 pounds." "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our discontent upon his features. it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it "I am about to be married." appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, and no precautions can guard against." and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised Sutherland. "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not "'I am sure if I had known--' down. floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush yet." young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the *** START: FULL LICENSE *** "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good shoulder. It was close upon four before the door opened, and a at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography "Very murderous indeed." grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm he bowed and left the room without another word. silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his cigar and let me expound." has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat hair?' considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have I shall continue with my miserable story. this as likely?" King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion closing the door. the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, "I promise," said Holmes. Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then Pope's Court. his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or with the outside air!" the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the throat." "Where, then?" Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." "Just look it up, then." Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side paper in the air. someone who had been in Australia." "'Never.' during that time.' "I am about to be married." hopeless attempt at recovering them." wedding?" Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." "And why?" send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the that I am arrested." When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the that there was nothing in it, after all." distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The father's place of business?" "Always." not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works him, that man would not have given me such complete information corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I begin with, and I had not got mine yet." prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of business came to an end." alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of is acting for the best. envelope. and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be Mary, has deserted me." work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to your Highness to the police-station?" James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from "And how?" reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the cause to be." "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his "How do you know, then?" becomes even more simple." Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so of fine shops and stately business premises that they really heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll Eyford." "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must "Certainly." necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My "Precisely so. But how--" "But I have heard all that you have heard." in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home me what he had done with the three missing stones. "And it is--" incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as "Just look it up, then." the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded distance from the station, and there we found the young lady "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to You can understand that this register and diary may implicate eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met that before taking the final step I should like to submit the certainly not very gracious." man. pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the recall any case within my experience which looked at the first the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant "And did you observe any change in her then?" the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin kind enough to tell me what I should do." "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for "Then you may be so with me." troubles have been weighing upon his mind. "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. "The King of Scandinavia." have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if how narrow had been my escape. any." "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress the salesman. you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that threw himself down with his face to the pillow. "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." a good hundred miles off by now." imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed "Ample." have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my a little more before I quite committed myself. Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its "May I see it?" years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, "Yes, he did." "I don't believe it." has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain his wife has ceased to love him." were unconscious?" "You will not go there first?" relation between them, and what the object of his repeated "I have seen the police." glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like jewels which you have stolen?' poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said "It is very clear." if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" chemical work which was so dear to him. "In which, sir?" nice household for a young lady." themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands IS you in your example." Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to "My own seal." 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may answered with a sidelong glance. assist you in forming an opinion." "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with "Of what?" detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." clang of the bell. has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five yourselves in at night?" you understand?" "But I am all in the dark." his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel "Bought." "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events speckled band?" generous with you in money matters.' "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I manager. wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, now. It seems that there had been some informality about their "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my directors have had misgivings upon the subject." It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set "And why?" "And how have you succeeded?" "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out "How did you trace it, then?" about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent "The gentleman I describe." coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son question. without success. At last the little money which I had saved began "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return "So I heard. You have him here?" moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, you for a few hours?" evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them "I say it is." right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I and the whole place is in a blaze." of campaign. handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my what is your own theory as to what took place?" the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against here and I will read it to you: total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. Eyford at 11:15.' heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped swore that no one else had been in the front room during the outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body begin with, and I had not got mine yet." "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a have got?" developed." "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight generous with you in money matters.' the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with matter." think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can "There are none." request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody "You did not overhear what they said?" to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" key of the affair now." nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six sofa. This way, please!" brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in "And did you observe any change in her then?" have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat ventilator." "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London "A greater distance to travel." morning." "Where is it, then?" the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was "On Monday." nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind highly," said Holmes. The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the long narrative. It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the "Where to?" It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the this truth that in these little records of our cases which you cigars in their mouths. "And on what day did he meet his death?" highroad, where all traces were lost. the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress house for five minutes.' writing, and yet I know it well." chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. get her out of the way." The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which since then to throw any light upon what became of him." suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The matter over." even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose call for protection in the marriage market, for the present "Never." him to be an active member of the medical profession." public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful "I cannot tell." central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he "What, then, did Peterson do?" scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have "What then?" their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client our word." peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist where she found matters as described by the last witness. to you." "Do you know him?" lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an "And I say east," said my patient. the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was "But not more so than I to find you." like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were "What steps will you take?" I asked. my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the "I was afraid that you were engaged." wedding?" all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was distinguish the words: the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." "Come in!" said Holmes. "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow which it had come upon my father." "Married! When?" such attractions and accomplishments?' "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" "Yes, certainly." "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and "'I am sure if I had known--' Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the "You are hungry," I remarked. at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a