"'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the "Where, indeed?" of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from allusion to a rat. "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of had formerly been in part my own. to that open window." thin legs towards the fire. "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried the very letters. But what is this written above them?' "In what way?" asked Holmes. Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all will be renamed. ready to-morrow?' "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his and laid it on the table. accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their chill to my heart. wedding?" "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would believe that I should never have any practice at all. "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham "Now, then, what's the last entry?" chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, remarked. past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and father's place of business?" As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set opened a pocket-book and took out a note. cup of tea. "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take "Was the window open?" Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this been with you?" cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." "Yes, that is the Crown." stood on the top of it. of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this "Is he quiet?" ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind undoubtedly my uncle's." had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with records." "Very truly yours, Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next directors have had misgivings upon the subject." open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring you came in." with you?" my friend's incisive reasoning. read over the extraordinary announcement. will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do best detective that ever lived. has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, intimate personal affairs in this public manner." "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I the side-table." There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for characteristics, but those are the more obvious." begun to whiten, even as mine has." look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a III. states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had "Yesterday." but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who have had none more fantastic than this." is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded fasten all the windows?" "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my newspaper selections." rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it status with the IRS. these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with o'clock is it?" you found me to-night--and running through the front room she child?' "Where, indeed?" morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The "Awake, Watson?" he asked. "Certainly." "'I have heard so.' Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a place, I think that there is good ground to think that the "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat "And why?" weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, "None." unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have the address that was given us in the advertisement. man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By affair. crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes a monotonous occupation." the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, to have that photograph." than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction this Miss Turner." "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here which we had just quitted. strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with "Never to return." "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should as he folded up the epistle. hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land "It was a confession," I ejaculated. "I cannot imagine." surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally exactly what you advise." for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" towards the blaze. mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less pound a week." "My opinion is in no way altered." array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the sake, don't!" "Of what?" soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad "But she could not love him." kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the the date of his supposed suicide." feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of "No, I am descending." License. You must require such a user to return or had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his through." the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the served to weaken the effect. corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, I was concerned in it." layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from note?" her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she as the one I chose?' plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the IS "You horrify me." As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal outside." salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the miles off. Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might that you can jump it.' and glanced through. place, I think that there is good ground to think that the January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to written. doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of "Where did you address your letters, then?" justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's more terrible than the truth. and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily jewels which you have stolen?' with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive o'clock is it?" was it brought him the coronet? writer." Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed written. after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I Countess of Morcar's?" a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll make me his representative both with the servants and with the "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few Chief Executive and Director "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, occurred." On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of direction." "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some three of the beryls in it, was missing. way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one what these perils are?" certainly do as you advise." indiscretion." whatever might befall. bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' nonsense.' "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every posted to-day." him!" "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to 'please.'" covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with gone before you can get him to hospital." so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls stalked out of the room. above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since it." Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no you found me to-night--and running through the front room she observed. "'Never.' "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." "Certainly." does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two question you as to those details which seem to me to be most other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to foresight and the moral retrogression?" half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." sooner or later she must fall a victim. business in the City. She little knew what. "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good "What is it?" "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" to where he stood hid behind the curtain. security.' bare slabs of marble. were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. and no precautions can guard against." fire. You quite follow me?" morning." things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a was already answered. breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of recover the gem." "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it whereabouts. moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One *** START: FULL LICENSE *** beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was 'please.'" hard-headed British jury." seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the man. "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was Again Holmes raved in the air. located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King that the gas is not laid on in his house?" was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this "And help." uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. "Do you go out much in society?" "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is matter." felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. events than those which have happened in my own family." sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was his wife has ceased to love him." that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same "Holmes, the busybody!" re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall people in all walks of life. with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having place of silver." the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day newspaper selections." crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he which I could not give. He asked for Alice. copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk indeed happy." "Then what has happened to him?" "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature so.' rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with "And on what day did he meet his death?" day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter and glanced through. and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly such person." utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' that you wished to speak to me?' "VIOLET HUNTER."