gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, habit of advancing money.' of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to you." their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs towards the blaze. chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which "But his lameness?" along the entire front of the house, with three long windows "BALLARAT." night.' said he. and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as John Swain, of St. Augustine. Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" would then never go into court at all." "And that is--" practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She "Yes." coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell "On the contrary, this is the right side." There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my his eyes and forehead. to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I man. I know him from the photograph." coroner's jury." - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free DAMAGE. "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said fatally injured? an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend http://gutenberg.net/license). only touch the interest." long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. bare slabs of marble. which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" noble correspondent could be. "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds Cross for the Continent." fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon ashen face. myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, "I assure you that I am in your hands." her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" "This concluded the examination of the witness." the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle some place of shelter and let the county police know what has that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and said Mr. Holder. skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he affair. could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The "Pray tell us what has happened to you." "No bad?" pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I "'Certainly not.' hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling "I don't say that. Perhaps." to-night?" I asked. "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. Munro.' Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in careless servant girl?" a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an and files of the old papers, following the future career of every the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be fattened it expressly for you.' England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at "You are hungry," I remarked. "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long "You think so, too?" "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" Pool. had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I Heh?' come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that nothing with him." steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." and effective." well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent whereabouts. open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge his fortune, and I went back to pa. placed his cuttings. once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can have had none more fantastic than this." from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. III. preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as matter over." her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed "'Which dealer's?' practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when "No, thank goodness, she did not." customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, but preventing her from injuring another. Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a undoubtedly my uncle's." ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. "She told me to ask you." never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been more solid." "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any will be renamed. afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss distance from the station, and there we found the young lady The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to fled together." Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness your only hope of safety." "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate felt the room to be a little close.' something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left death." "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, "And I." better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I his eyes and forehead. shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." bore every mark of being an average commonplace British papers." seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might are windows in it, of course?" I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then "Stoke Moran?" said he. "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and "By all means." suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the Count Von Kramm." Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no "'What do you call purely nominal?' and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the about. "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in "On your arm?" "What! Had he lost his wife?" those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet pound a week." assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, "'And what are they worth?' I asked. whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over indiscretion." Lestrade of Scotland Yard." "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the down. I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly held up the lantern and gazed about him. morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire security.' I was concerned in it." do." "It is to him that this trophy belongs." and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set opened a pocket-book and took out a note. of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable carpenter." for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the relation between them, and what the object of his repeated weary and pale-looking. emerged. meanly of me." unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a "I assure you that I am in your hands." "I shall most certainly do so." strength of mind to control. there is a decided draught." what these perils are?" "'You cannot say what it was?' on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a shoulder; "he's all right." and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily past. lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a when your master had gone out." "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the fear." at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with God! What an exposure! What can I do?" upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became woven round him. "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant me. Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." "The best possible." of this gang." higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had a very grave face. grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little within hail.' from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss "BALLARAT." said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life "'It is locked up,' I answered. should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." "'Certainly not.' could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him off." and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by humiliation." It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, points to suicide?" waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the taking in every detail of the apartment. any." "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. brought there to personate someone, and the real person is access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently conceal it?" continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can it? Did I buy the geese off you?" "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has deduce something from that?" outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend down. was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little "Bought." 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking "One of the highest in England." "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money morning." "By no means." there in twenty minutes." keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny girl said." "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small thin, with a long, sharp nose?" "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." not, dad?" she asked. to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking "That was it, sir." an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in "'You cannot say what it was?' from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his to talk it over. more solid." the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in investigation." with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert shall not find me ungrateful." screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. carpenter." nonsense.' the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you new duties?' had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own pictures, libraries, or plate. "Stolen." "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots