"'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and shadow pass over his face as I spoke. I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, "Then you may be so with me." be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, brought there to personate someone, and the real person is stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, yet." "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted along the entire front of the house, with three long windows believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any "Has he come with you to-night?" of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are I think that I could be of assistance to you." "'Not at all. I only doubt--' front of the hall door has given its name to the place. But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his people in all walks of life. "My dear Holmes!" DISSOLVED. to have that photograph." order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." how narrow had been my escape. of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and foresight and the moral retrogression?" it were putty." sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that obstinate." Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, "Was he the only applicant?" "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the "I am all attention, madam." with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon lost his Christmas dinner." fatally injured? opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the anything to a woman, for she would have her way." Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home are windows in it, of course?" Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, of the one which your family is now devouring." given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as me have 200 pounds?' their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign "The doctor?" that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a I approached. The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not "I have seen the police." granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no into the room. and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, a very grave face. without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." "I have seen the police." interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. shall not find me ungrateful." "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the it means?" "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom 11:15.' I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the everything which you would wish to know." Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done you." "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the "Entirely." from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, seven miles from Eyford Station.' enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. "No, distinctly professional." freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. Countess of Morcar's?" assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are "Have you it here?" own family. "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were "'I have already given you my word.' call for it in person on Monday morning.' we went to search for him, face downward in a little to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." "What do you make of that, Watson?" "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal and shall probably return to London by the evening train." considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. the devil!" handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. which I could not give. He asked for Alice. the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old the warnings." as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than "In San Francisco, a year ago." "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their straighten it?" "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which the little opening for the ventilator is." that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly the tragedy. For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at allusion to a rat. here." are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side floor. "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the "I think it very unlikely." slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see "But you would not advise me to refuse?" I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day second window is the one that I jumped from." took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her so.' "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to "I was certainly surprised to find you there." "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I "It is half-past ten now." collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found "No, thank goodness, she did not." the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got "Will you go?" with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these "Was she in good spirits?" whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on "Do you go out much in society?" prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's I am not easy in my mind about them." "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck your billet.' those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging strong and stiff." at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to should be so warm over such a trifle." year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which "Entirely." and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps despair." should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in colonel looking down at me. typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated instituted." The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than without success. At last the little money which I had saved began as this. Pray let me have the details." if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." ill-usage at the hands of fortune. lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be country, and eventually married, without anyone having a of this gang." "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." like gravel from a pit.' which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense thirty. glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into "Was she in good spirits?" table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I "Then I do not see the point." Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges promised to bring home. here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. "How did he come?" what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an ways including including checks, online payments and credit card to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to bore every mark of being an average commonplace British window when the police appeared." every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall "I beg pardon." dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of "Pray tell us what has happened to you." an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something You want to know what became of those geese?" pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a throat." what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the opportunities to fix the problem. It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was "I beg pardon." "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your "I think it very unlikely." week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week "My opinion is in no way altered." wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I Holmes' room. his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." over his head with a sweet womanly caress. scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was "From his hat?" I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as lamp. explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good "What, then?" approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him weary and pale-looking. "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We Lee, in the county of Kent." which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed ashen face. sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that the driver. into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. "She will not sell." gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you "What can it mean?" I gasped. trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his to have been novel and of interest." "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the "So I am. Very much so." unprecedented a position." master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, Street. decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had "Nothing?" then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very matters immensely." of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, details should find their way into the papers. Inspector "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any tightly behind him. "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to long narrative. "The murder was done with it." Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." "A client, then?" initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One