than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been congenial hunt. occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a was keenly on my guard against him. deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you some water from a caraffe. "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. and capable of preserving a secret.' Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance wedding?" "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left arrested. You then--" "Yes, he did." "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would brought there to personate someone, and the real person is expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I tell me that you intended to go into harness." pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something to change my dress. rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I these bleak autumnal evenings." "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the other lovers by making love himself." the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you depend upon your compliance." my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had bearing upon the case." call the police, let the police find what they can.' where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." acted in my house last night?" not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of the stable lane now." "Very much so." "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that "How did you trace it, then?" "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even might have a private word with us. in this note: "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." habit of advancing money.' own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was hour." Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a "Yes." used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself "You are all wrong." "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was "No. What a strange idea!" pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, "I should like to see him very much." well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." It was close upon four before the door opened, and a appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of legal crime." purpose equally well?" posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, "One of the highest in England." and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There garden below. "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these "But you would not advise me to refuse?" above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the "'It is locked up,' I answered. four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." our word." firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin father's young wife. of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such I think that I could be of assistance to you." we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step papers must be those that are destroyed.' know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a been with you?" few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by placed his cuttings. ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The "'And the work?' "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." subject to the trademark license, especially commercial Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to "I was certainly surprised to find you there." Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become *** START: FULL LICENSE *** confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. had died away into the silence from which it rose. "Dirty?" and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever very peculiar words of the dying woman?" the loss of it. it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting "Precisely." They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. promised to bring home. the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." the Red-headed League." side. "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and "How do you know, then?" down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then if I call to-morrow?" better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a "Certainly." massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the "You have carte blanche." second window is the one that I jumped from." served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get woman who has had her own way to make in the world. "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. she might be summoned. her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and "Where is it, then?" and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy "He is still with you, I presume?" large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw of the vacancies.' Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With in the port of London." "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" enough to aid us in our search." one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out some mystery and the punishment of some crime." did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." that, and I came down." occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of letters?" protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence "You are hungry," I remarked. of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely that I may have something better before very many minutes are unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my crowd. The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my to a more successful conclusion." "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be leaning back in his chair. Lee, in the county of Kent." Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. of Fenchurch Street." down in his armchair and closing his eyes. his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King "I don't say that. Perhaps." cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the Literary Archive Foundation again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. "Yes, it would be as well." 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" redistribution. "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, noble correspondent could be. "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that late." "What, then?" way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," morning." "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." "Then the page we have seen--" the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the "No, I had a dozen." "And why?" should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands "You forget that I know nothing about it." "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense said he. pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with for the market.' side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad before, for it was considerably after midnight. for its centre. "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in look dissatisfied." ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. absolutely follow my advice in every respect." Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." "It may not come to that," said Holmes. Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a "I cannot imagine." respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. "You were travelling in the States?" mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. I think that I could be of assistance to you." While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of when your master had gone out." 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return more solid." jewels which you have stolen?' lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before "Then I do not see the point." "If I can be of use." layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There bearing upon the case." "Which are?" it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned "Ah!" Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been Edgeware Road. make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat the Red-headed League." "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may "I have come for advice." of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' "Nothing?" The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a "Murdered?" "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him during which he might have communicated with his friend the William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies "It was an hour's good drive." "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last even so self-evident a thing as that." morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass interested in these little problems, and since you are good of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and bore every mark of being an average commonplace British "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by you." stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when "Ha! you find it so?" "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of might help us?" the tragedy. and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow "An accident, I presume?" was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he "Why, it's a dummy," said he. correct than the official force." so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One Eyford at 11:15.' "So I have heard." "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two "Not I." hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible what is your own theory as to what took place?" was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in redistribution. do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly "Not in a good cause." which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then heavy and sharp instrument." seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for "And help." "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my happened." "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood power." across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional "I was sure that I might rely on you." mystery!" the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and respectable self." perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. "Nothing." The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be very old mansion. his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** depend upon my doing so.' receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the "You have the photograph?" showing my impatience. believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in the salesman. "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the