hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have outbreak?" "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second call you and give you the chance." "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man had a long day." danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a you." fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the "I am still in the dark." my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been "It was a confession," I ejaculated. half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the "I am armed." "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been During two years I have had three consultations and one small that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the was once confined in the cab my mission was practically mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it have got?" "Yes. He waved his hands." furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or opened the door, and slipped through. keep the flames under. McCarthy." gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak most interesting one." "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my "What do you mean?" sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on that he will be back before evening." returned to France?" affair. were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the strength in the others." as this. Pray let me have the details." we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we assist you in forming an opinion." "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point "What! You do not mean bodies?" was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it during the last few years, and there are many noble families to interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's giving me time to thank him. We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the fire. You quite follow me?" is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not "But who is he?" wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. six. Come in!" deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of lids now and glanced across at his visitor. presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, lost nothing by them." test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and was feeling which was the fattest.' "Texas, I think." with her." had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the again, where I was soon asleep. that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from "Frequently." fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred "Yes. He waved his hands." to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself "How are you getting on?" could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' "Won't it ring?" here and I will read it to you: "Oh, fresh and glossy." fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, "'I am sure that I do not know.' "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side any." to arrive at through this?" "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place "How did that help you?" coat-tails." know all about it," he snarled. came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her "You horrify me!" "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. "What! Had he lost his wife?" Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at singular points about the case. What did the police think of the Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have to-night's adventure." "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion not personally threatened." corner of the building. light and attacked it." "Where did you address your letters, then?" test if we have an answer to our advertisement." rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. carriage. It was a chestnut." "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the "I was mad--insane." "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the because she had spent so short a time in this country that she "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me "And now?" I asked. time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be "None." more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he get the tickets." week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I "You heard nothing yourself last night?" "I don't say that. Perhaps." to change my dress. "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, relation between them, and what the object of his repeated view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband photograph?" "Well, some hundreds of times." we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at "I say that I have solved it." "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a "I will try. What is it?" through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came of Mr. Rucastle's." reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with suddenly upon us." Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high call you and give you the chance." When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from "10th. John Swain cleared. "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the http://gutenberg.net/license). wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; "Where is it, then?" glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found father's young wife. with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had "How did he come?" the loss of it. "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, simple cases which are so extremely difficult." "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my "'And the work?' Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out province." "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new bearing upon the case." resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but them, and came down just as you departed. access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he she might be summoned. surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a yards of it?' "That was it, sir." "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he beg that you will break it off." and glanced through. characteristics, but those are the more obvious." a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches "An enemy?" 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the imbecility!" he cried. you." separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three indiscretion." correct than the official force." had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked became a certainty. records." "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the distance from the station, and there we found the young lady in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the "And how have you succeeded?" arms and began to sob in a high treble key. off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite right! Sit down and let us talk it over." as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I security.' look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage "'Where to?' "Yes, he did." "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged instituted." "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." "We were both in the photograph." your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest "'Yes, sir.' forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he tail." "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." next day. were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his "It is true that I have been generally successful." Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, prison!" "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the Chief Executive and Director attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some "What I expected to see." "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months she might be summoned. counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with train.' the coronet in his hand?" thirty. age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was that there was nothing in it, after all." said I. "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, room had already been engaged for us. which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might think that any burglar could have done. "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on I nodded to show that I had heard. "None." with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet the stones. much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission it." should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, head. So long, then!" have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any "And how did he make his money?" certainly not very gracious." the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of what do you think they found in the pockets?" impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, other lovers by making love himself." some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional you." from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to had this final quarrel? Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the this remarkable episode. "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the his cane at the bell-pull. appointment with me for six o'clock?" commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some coroner's jury." entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim the tragedy. "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the that I can to serve you." have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man think, you have already met." public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm to arrive at through this?" "Proceed, then." found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, way in." all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then "And why?" was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural John Swain, of St. Augustine. Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.'