Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a "But of what society?" "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, "What, then?" "Breckinridge is his name." security.' time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the "What is it, then--a fire?" "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as evidence," I remarked. with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, "What office?" door?" Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect to have been novel and of interest." pierced for earrings?" woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more "He said that you could solve anything." "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the "You have but to name it." Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my "The vanishing of the lady." "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in forehead. think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. "No good news?" before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands started for the Temple to see my husband. succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged "And the murderer?" Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom simple cases which are so extremely difficult." o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a to a light-house. to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn to that open window." where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me confronted him. not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in "Was she in good spirits?" I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, "'You cannot say what it was?' Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her threw himself down with his face to the pillow. "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far "To an end?" photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway "Bought." "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was "I am still in the dark." "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical "That also I could fathom." ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had are, I think, all that we need." hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able "ARAT," I read. about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he "I cannot imagine." have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition room. across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." passage and a tap at the door. "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had intrusion of other matters." "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked placed his cuttings. been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind "No good news?" pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the place of silver." half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable she used." "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly searched, without anything being found which could incriminate little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its trifles." learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an "'Ample.' nothing of it?" and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to ago." Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it "Which are?" withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not had this final quarrel? "Not particularly." "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, present." side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very sake, don't!" "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. something of him before." "It was a confession," I ejaculated. remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your The police have openly confessed that they can at present make Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with unprofitable." vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. quickly through a disagreeable task. have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of brandy and water within his reach. to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure "'What do you call purely nominal?' ceremony." One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that a little more before I quite committed myself. from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, know all about it," he snarled. my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which which it had come upon my father." "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite presented more singular features than that which was associated it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into desk. copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him legal crime." "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after I shall continue with my miserable story. perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in and all of them with the keenest interest. his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. "Absolutely none." gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him evidence," I remarked. violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the the date of his supposed suicide." Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a "You have carte blanche." to-night?" I asked. "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the "Nothing." disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close take the flies, but not before." I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. least a fellow-countryman. "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would "Well." "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost "'Never,' said I. in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly advice." "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen keep the flames under. "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" "You heard nothing yourself last night?" pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried "'And the work?' I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. fear." this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it extraordinary contortions. is entirely a question of barometric pressure." "I have a cab outside." science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in points to suicide?" "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when "Not I." ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had photograph?" the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to prisoner's face. developed." chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." will be renamed. which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you remarked. still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the in this way: this man was intellectual?" really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a "You know me, then?" home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled your most interesting statement." liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good fuss that is made over them." It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, pictures, libraries, or plate. approach us with offers to donate. "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked the stable lane now." "But you would not advise me to refuse?" January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with "And you thought he was pulled back?" upon an income of about 60 pounds." THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were photograph?" and glanced through. "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." power." arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and heavily into it. but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it "Really! You surprise me." there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was views." his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a conceal it?" reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong weapon." gone. bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the discontent upon his features. Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. I have it here in my museum." carpenter." "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will writing, and yet I know it well." "It goes to the housekeeper's room." her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very is acting for the best. my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. people in all walks of life. "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and companion imperturbably. I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's "They are typewritten," I remarked. do." Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has way in." "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, "Why did you pick him?" could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to astonishment. was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to strange features which were associated with the two crimes which Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal nights." "I cannot as yet see any connection." mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of where Mr. Fordham shows you.' good for you to do.' journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and "If so, much may have happened between." "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It