the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key visitors." "I never have." along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I you." gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on interested in these little problems, and since you are good Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. gives a meaning to it." "Then I am your man." Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I drove away. "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a "So it appears." last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you second window is the one that I jumped from." passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the stalked out of the room. "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. hour?' likely to be some crony of the landlady's." hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a have I gained?" Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He it." then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and "And why?" permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he pictures, libraries, or plate. laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from This is what he says: "And why in hopes?" patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover "To an end?" "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or was feeling which was the fattest.' not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the leaning back in his chair. but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him see me here to avoid scandal." gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors "I will not look." the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" if only as a check to my own memory." red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our bears upon the case?" open." smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad note?" "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid "Very. But will he see it?" to-night?' "Was the window open?" examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet "My opinion is in no way altered." your own bird, so if you wish--" charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." "Oh, fresh and glossy." several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you served to weaken the effect. sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you "But she will refuse." pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. persecution?" behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought Miss Holder?" "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he could go. the south-west, I see." in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my Eyford." roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the "The knees of his trousers." doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: back alive. trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both presume?" Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man carriage. It was a chestnut." "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to "Was she in good spirits?" of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have "Then I shall certainly come." much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing "I see no marks." telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his see a sister of mine apply for." ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." "Certainly." I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but "Certainly." "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all "What do you make of that, Watson?" "I think that it is very probable." centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction is entirely a question of barometric pressure." individual and becomes the badge of a society." flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets carpenter." "Can I be of assistance?" "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was "I think it very unlikely." for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the occupations.' "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from round with crates and massive boxes. "It was an hour's good drive." delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me "Very truly yours, It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the and the church but not where the lady lived." from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. children over to America with him, so that I found myself without leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that DISSOLVED. "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so "I answered that I had not. "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It asked. prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the is worth.' relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his "By no means." forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of "I am in hopes that she does." in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad quickly through a disagreeable task. nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project voice. paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification "Very much so." present." him to go away.' stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which "It is possible." balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a "I will get her to show me." "No, I had a dozen." but preventing her from injuring another. I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally "Tired-looking or fresh?" "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. "You saw the ventilator, too?" "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for answer." three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From me what he had done with the three missing stones. foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be careless servant girl?" pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, clang of the bell. IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB "Married! When?" had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To there were so many in the whole country as were brought together client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, upon the shelf for the interim." listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he evidence," I remarked. "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it approach us with offers to donate. open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their "Is he quiet?" "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, might have a private word with us. broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over not use it unless it is absolutely needed." "Yes, he did." vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in "By no means." eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. "'Never,' said I. out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three "Yes, it was twisted." "In the cells." look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for is a common subject for conversation. have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was "That is also quite modern," said the lady. noise which awoke you from your sleep?" superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." "'Is purely nominal.' "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the "You saw the ventilator, too?" fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and character. quick march!" him and tried to hold him back. upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was and the colonel ushered me in. time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own front of me. quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth "What will you say?" to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were round and wave him away like that.' discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, "But how could you guess what the motive was?" story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no "Precisely so. But how--" season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily Watson," he said cordially. which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself beyond words. double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then all that?" The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water bird of prey. have established a very serious case against the son of the submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if their singular warning or token before them when starting upon was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the "Awake, Watson?" he asked. back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call photograph?" high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have emerged. "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." it? Did I buy the geese off you?" gives a meaning to it." villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure James Windibank. Voilà tout!" family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." was not a bird to be seen there. afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, chill to my heart. "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." companion imperturbably. set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and "Nothing?" "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to "Well, some hundreds of times." "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so fact, we may call it conclusive." only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. the running down." "'Where could I find him?' "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. affair. "I warn you that they are very incomplete." "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door "Have you her photograph?" initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband