you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little "Yes." nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose "And how did he make his money?" deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy always that they were such commands as a lady might with whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! conclusions. "I was afraid that you were engaged." sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came "None." misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the "'How far from the body?' I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as "How on earth--" "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have from you?" habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in golden eyeglasses. "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will "What! Had he lost his wife?" infinite languor in his face. Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. colour had been driven from his face. "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down results." cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the my friend's incisive reasoning. go back?" "May I see it?" The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & "Why serious?" impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and paper in the air. news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs nothing of it?" 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: nice household for a young lady." impression behind it as though a window had gently closed is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he plantation.' "No, finished." questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I bare slabs of marble. daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the would then never go into court at all." other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger to-night?" I asked. There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to "It is possible." "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he papers on the sundial.'" have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint once more on the important position which you have been fortunate look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the instincts rose up against that laugh. arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he is four-and-twenty." "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. "Entirely." possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as never to learn it at all." I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in "But the mystery?" twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. James Windibank. Voilà tout!" such attractions and accomplishments?' objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have thin legs towards the fire. confronted him. male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the cost them two and thirty pounds." doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost think that any burglar could have done. "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will other lovers by making love himself." "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in "It is very clear." not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora relation between them, and what the object of his repeated you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All forbidden door. "I know where it is." "And the murderer?" had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no "It is solved." "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it "On the contrary, this is the right side." "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the jewels which you have stolen?' "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old was not a bird to be seen there. accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New everything which you would wish to know." brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an "'Never.' "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the shoulder; "he's all right." fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed "Your sister is dead, then?" I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He existence." of note-paper. It read in this fashion: "It is a murder, then?" "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. "What then?" him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your taking in every detail of the apartment. informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not It was close upon four before the door opened, and a "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with certainly do as you advise." Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at matter." THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ my room." a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see digesting their breakfasts at home." thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small night.' said he. the ceiling. spare." pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear "Which surely he restored to their owner?" Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far hand, madam?" "Have you her photograph?" crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed the running down." utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the amused." us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect "The Coroner: What do you mean? Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we think you a quite exceptional woman." He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" away to you." should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the that before taking the final step I should like to submit the occurred." and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? that I may have something better before very many minutes are "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all whereabouts. and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little certainly not very gracious." "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. matter." strength of mind to control. "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who that he will be back before evening." approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." "And how did he make his money?" tightly behind him. the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged awkward doing business with an alias." together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same "About a month then." road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down "And now?" I asked. A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of "What will you say?" "'What do you call purely nominal?' her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. have an American origin." inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and "No more words. Get out!" pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the "Her father is very rich?" With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. "And how in the world did you find them?" actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, fact, we may call it conclusive." creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project "It came here." has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. the house with me." Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away begun to whiten, even as mine has." They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they thin legs towards the fire. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you of." my little problems." Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, "Did your wife hear all this?" John Swain, of St. Augustine. be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine coat-tails." "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was together. I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to furiously. creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in "Awake, Watson?" he asked. Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm subject to the trademark license, especially commercial this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' the inner apartment." reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' in the hope of finding them." points to suicide?" "That also I could fathom." "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, "I cannot think." confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and posted to-day." Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of at my remark. "But you were on a friendly footing?" future lives." with her." combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads province." must compliment you." thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in generous with you in money matters.' cost them two and thirty pounds." would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing mystery may be cleared along those lines." point our research must commence, and we will begin it by but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be written, and locked the door of the office after me. occurred." a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. foot. George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I sake, don't!" "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the face and glided from the room. "Quite so. She has her freedom." solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the at once, for I have only half an hour." I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies fishes. years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in "Why did you beat the pavement?" Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit fluttered off among the others. brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." seem to you to be relevant or not." there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the "Then I am your man." all that?" that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it other means.' I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" fashion which was peculiar to him. served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The and have this put in the evening papers." "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. this poor creature." receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, "Of what day?" first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in "'In my own bureau.' Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now matters immensely." "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it as he folded up the epistle. "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet indeed which he could not unravel. read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have plantation.' in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated "I assure you that I am in your hands." "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three "It looks newer than the other things?" "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me friend's singular character. back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged when you have done it." of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the new duties?' down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional gone. "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle think that any burglar could have done. Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those society." "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the "Yes, they were peculiar boots." to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King breakfast." chance at all." My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My point our research must commence, and we will begin it by "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian made his money." "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the