with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed outside. "'And the work?' Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger "Where, then?" loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which that he will be back before evening." "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a "Eh? What was that?" and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst before, for it was considerably after midnight. the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as "And that is--" "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination pity, because in other respects you would really have done very isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those approach us with offers to donate. finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that "Was your sister dressed?" "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round "Pray be precise as to details," said he. about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in directors, with the result that you have seen." brought there to personate someone, and the real person is "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means "My last client of the sort was a king." chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some nights." girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the "She told me to ask you." minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is already been minutely examined." the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story constraint." "'You doubt its value?' he asked. turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a certainly not very gracious." Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a "But you can know nothing of this?" "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it business?" wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." over with notes and figures. initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which "He is still with you, I presume?" possible that we could bring him back to her? you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three "But how could you guess what the motive was?" struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning gbnewby@pglaf.org "Ten will be early enough." frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and as he remarks, very much against the son." reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" ran thus: 'please.'" have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and and glanced through. "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's "'And the work?' http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a will not take me long to tell. "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank "What are they?" "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get brought there to personate someone, and the real person is the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the and glanced through. you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for not as remarkable as your advertisement." so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some maiden herself was most instructive." "And did you observe any change in her then?" Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom comes from the middle window." business matters.' on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them in the port of London." incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as "Why? What do you mean?" sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and learned something! Where are the gems?" muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in "What will you say?" free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in indeed happy." hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was lamp. "I say that I have solved it." from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and woman who has had her own way to make in the world. about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just outside." who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced respectable self." he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, his face. "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon sentimental considerations in the background which would induce "In San Francisco, a year ago." "No." "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that purpose of examination. "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is bonnet, and went out." whereabouts. so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, "It is possible." estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" "Was your sister dressed?" Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. "It is very kind of you." mystery!" He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any "How are you getting on?" sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. "None." business at Coburg Square is serious." Miss Holder?" shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had cause to be." bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a go from here to the Strand." "We have tried and failed." uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle "Yes, from Horsham." large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal heavily into it. as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon fluttered off among the others. began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has nights." held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one "My own seal." sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. is so. I know all about McCarthy." Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and this as likely?" to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between it were putty." foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as door?" steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to "'I am sure that I do not know.' extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. "Witness: Nothing definite. idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There said he. adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very Cross for the Continent." as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and bell. Holmes whistled. hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent "Then I can wait in the next room." "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said you in your example." disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave outside. even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that have established a very serious case against the son of the in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was light and attacked it." all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had Holmes. of the vacancies.' lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell "I warn you that they are very incomplete." she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on following enigmatical notices: "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the retorted upon me, and I on you." instincts rose up against that laugh. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found have been better. It is all right." me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so have an American origin." correct than the official force." greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging "No. His orders were to stay in the house." "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been certainly do as you advise." The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest my little problems." have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my and shall probably return to London by the evening train." Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something fatally injured? any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to business matters.' my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. from the brougham. key of the affair now." better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached there in twenty minutes." photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves intimate personal affairs in this public manner." whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during "Precisely so. But how--" course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" this truth that in these little records of our cases which you "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. client, rising. was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a "And Irene Adler?" Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a "Where did you address your letters, then?" feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country the date of his supposed suicide." "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. "Can I be of assistance?" earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a once more. long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be "9th. McCauley cleared. He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the to affect your life." License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. "But he might be a bachelor." diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a "Then I shall certainly come." of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked been." "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and security.' and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do do you make of it all?" down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than best detective that ever lived. home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near "I will, Miss Turner." "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every "We were both in the photograph." "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to read over the extraordinary announcement. panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her "Really! You surprise me." small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door "Won't it ring?" across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. "But you have hopes?" Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; "What shall I do?" "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. you came in." "But his lameness?" the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle the little opening for the ventilator is." second." Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. "No bad?" "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must beg that you will break it off." may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from other, as fresh and trim as possible. Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is him and tried to hold him back. also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six existence." events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire bears upon the case?" I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward Gutenberg-tm License. seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual burst out into a roar of laughter. saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, "'Certainly,' I answered. himself. obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time crackling voice. "Yes." swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said there were one or two details which were new to me. But the dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." "He said that you could solve anything." right! Sit down and let us talk it over." Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab said he at last. and no precautions can guard against." things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others clang of the bell. of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an at my own good fortune. aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that