lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety woman who has had her own way to make in the world. didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, will take you up to see the machine.' "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the threw himself down with his face to the pillow. wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which "I came to find a friend." only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. national property. I was determined that the law should have its thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove "That is easily got." face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that outside. "Whose house is it?" depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to in the dead of the night?' the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My "Not yet." ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to said he. the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." appointment with me for six o'clock?" "Yes, but only for you and me." brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out you give your casting vote to?" one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City these bleak autumnal evenings." "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some "Which surely he restored to their owner?" first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, his face. "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." "Was your sister dressed?" "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at approach us with offers to donate. "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped me upon any point which I do not make clear." my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would his cane at the bell-pull. not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the States. Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole fear." "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and Literary Archive Foundation and it need not interfere very much with one's other the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." her also." dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." "Yes. He waved his hands." gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must the coronet in his hand?" have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had "And for present expenses?" week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There young Openshaw's." seven miles from Eyford Station.' ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would "Where, indeed?" however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim union?" 1.E.9. of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear "At the wedding breakfast." something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming during which he might have communicated with his friend the narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of the iron safe, which he closed upon it. daring than any effort of the imagination." to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us "Absolutely?" his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly a very grave face. "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by "Dr. Becher's." the south-west, I see." "The doctor?" not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell been lifted and conveyed somewhere." has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's "'Never,' said I. beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and most important business. It is probable that he will be away all "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into happened." "Pray do so." it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will "No, finished." "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what been with you?" set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church "Yes, I have one waiting." order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried "Where is it, then?" gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' lamp. being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did never came back." "Did your wife hear all this?" souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton the general public were present, then?" company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found my friend's incisive reasoning. he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, events than those which have happened in my own family." "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they direction." bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." "Game for a morning drive?" passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the him to go away.' to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never "And leave your case unfinished?" emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. business in the City. She little knew what. sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we "Murdered?" fait accompli?" "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing "Never." There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited "You are certainly joking, Holmes." English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. daring than any effort of the imagination." "And help." ashen face. matter." "Nothing." morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." "Married! When?" my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To his fortune, and I went back to pa. not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary The events in question occurred in the early days of my "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the foot. social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised light and attacked it." perplexity from it to my illustrious client. agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a questioning and rather startled gaze. these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it and laid it on the table. "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course which was all perfectly true. way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock not come at once?" "I have come for advice." "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I delirious. "How about poison?" her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is "That also I could fathom." object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic outside." something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into always that they were such commands as a lady might with stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the matter." be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the later, upon the night of May 2nd." I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" burst into a hearty fit of laughter. "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved The police have openly confessed that they can at present make intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt very old mansion. agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward "Absolutely?" "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an I am not easy in my mind about them." things are very often connected not with the larger but with the "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the "'Yes, it was gone.' "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. "'As governess?' were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were him and tried to hold him back. Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss "I cannot tell." "Game for a morning drive?" expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular of note-paper. It read in this fashion: astonishment. across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from I was concerned in it." though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my "What do you make of that, Watson?" "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is "Yes, from Horsham." "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even "I see no marks." ashen face. "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more your billet.' mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson and that he would see to anything that turned up. of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were standing smiling on the door-step. through." "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of one of the states of the Union." as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us "How on earth--" were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning "But what will you do?" and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon green of the new foliage. "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the The telegram which we eventually received came late one night business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe "Yes." such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could ventilator." against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in is so. I know all about McCarthy." I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. together. was the fact that his father should, according to his account, "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a "To an end?" at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, been." *** START: FULL LICENSE *** "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly "'Quite sure, dad.' searched, without anything being found which could incriminate pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact "How did you deduce the select?" "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five Farm upon the left." what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against he died? train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a bears upon the case?" too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly that he will be back before evening." be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of something of him before." "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had of this gang." blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight I nodded to show that I had heard. meant it for the best. there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would "The murder was done with it." any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John "That sounds a little paradoxical." the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an impression behind it as though a window had gently closed police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, crime. my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have sofa. This way, please!" open." sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror "On the contrary, this is the right side." done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we "Get out!" said he. stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with "10th. John Swain cleared. Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my "'Is purely nominal.' strode off upon his way. of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an look dissatisfied." down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." "Not yet." your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers despair." "One of the highest in England." villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. companion imperturbably. dramatic, in fact." "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.'