"See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to lectures into a series of tales." As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the "In heaven's name, what for?" copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative London for the present?" never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a "Get out!" said he. open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before simple cases which are so extremely difficult." some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this woven round him. woven round him. there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended him. have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow "But your client--" would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately views." cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point good-night and bustled off upon her way. The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my been lifted and conveyed somewhere." "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found four million human beings all jostling each other within the beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds hand, madam?" me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which one's self under obligations.' her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a deduce something from that?" Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring which are rolled in Rotterdam." to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said see a sister of mine apply for." "I saw her in conversation with her maid." though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon "Yes." neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her nonsense.' whereabouts. All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but "It must be recovered." "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows astonishment. harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as photograph a cabinet?" bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not just called myself is not exactly my own." seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are wall." "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the careless servant girl?" into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm "Yes." swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a to go into your room and bar your shutters?" and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two "'And what salary do you ask?' direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms "What is it?" "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father congratulate you again." prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two writing, and yet I know it well." skylight. deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing other means.' "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name cigars in their mouths. him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to here." puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of "I was sure that I might rely on you." that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and it." she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue "None." "Where did you address your letters, then?" hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I the little opening for the ventilator is." and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well the bed, and you in that chair." itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the "I came to find a friend." you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. that, and I came down." wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of Munro.' the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch crowd. should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the ashen face. shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the said he. families. Now for the facts. body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's once more for Briony Lodge. drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said certainly not very gracious." October 9, 1890. by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from and a shock of very red hair. to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, you found me to-night--and running through the front room she everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not "Absolutely?" down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." It may be so in this case, also." him nearly every evening." before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On a room. computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used me what he had done with the three missing stones. article?" I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, "I was afraid that you were engaged." conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under hurried away. so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, floor. reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I nights." three of the beryls in it, was missing. for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect look upon these things in a different way." father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his "Ah, but I was recommended to you." surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. the bottom.' "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost system of imprisonment?" one else, I think." his wife has ceased to love him." and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the "So I have heard." were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in burst out into a roar of laughter. is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever nothing of it?" have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own politicians who had been sent down from the North. redistribution. suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is pierced for earrings?" "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the garden below. "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the not, dad?" she asked. although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his child?' - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, foresight and the moral retrogression?" I was concerned in it." to tackle the facts." it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come congenial hunt. "Certainly." gone before you can get him to hospital." pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the of Mr. Rucastle's." "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do way in everything. through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter "Then I can wait in the next room." "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" that I am arrested." "'Then let me do so?' "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in God! What an exposure! What can I do?" soul! here is her carriage at the door." the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. "Yes." 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is triumphant cloud from his cigarette. thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers "How about poison?" Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I pressing in one house as in another. "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end quite distinctive." "You forget that I know nothing about it." "Can I be of assistance?" "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to certainly do as you advise." "At the wedding breakfast." caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set interest. They are important, you understand, without being long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my she might be summoned. "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between new acquaintance to Baker Street. at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His friends, not even his own brother. vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my sneer upon his pale face. "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was "Do you go out much in society?" American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw conclusions. bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off annoyance, but no jest. fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. "Come in!" said Holmes. facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way and I shall be with you presently." "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab Eyford at 11:15.' Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort over part of the map. "What do you read?" that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you "Why, what do you mean?" the stable lane now." one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it "You horrify me." my secret was safe in his possession. upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary begin with, and I had not got mine yet." The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as Dr. Gregory B. Newby better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven could not have written that. It is the German who is so fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up your troubles." our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of "There is the writing." "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your humiliation." and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few if I call to-morrow?" Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the "No good news?" "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the "It is to him that this trophy belongs." "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" "You don't mind breaking the law?" days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very the coronet in his hand?" into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock "The Coroner: What do you mean? marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will