were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, "And now?" He raised his hand. "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the past. hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the "And for present expenses?" "I have a cab outside." red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." not personally threatened." set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything This is what he says: did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought look upon these things in a different way." "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." "Certainly." miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but at a side door. "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! "Yesterday." explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, "But what will you do?" closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know you." with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has "'About the same.' "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor little trying to do so much typewriting?" the driver. "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly himself to tell his story. Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough yards of it?' "I am about to be married." Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were "I would pay ten." broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so along the entire front of the house, with three long windows clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the and glanced through. called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a lamp in his hand. there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite Holmes' thin, eager face. simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The "You horrify me." from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when "I would give my fortune to have them back." she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is power." ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she and prosperity to your house. Good-night." outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' "My opinion is in no way altered." signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor stepfather?" "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. congratulate you again." presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he be.' Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered "Where did you address your letters, then?" "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not looking up at the numbers of the houses." that before taking the final step I should like to submit the do.' him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, if I call to-morrow?" There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' of campaign. fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause "And how in the world did you find them?" and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, to you." thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had "And your father? Did you tell him?" said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who tied." caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little arms and began to sob in a high treble key. He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is the coronet in his hand?" "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies within hail.' the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on "Yesterday." will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The there in twenty minutes." whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. bell. Holmes whistled. waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as "'Yes, it was gone.' agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two the little opening for the ventilator is." opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little towards the blaze. difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our one's self under obligations.' better in every way that they should make their position a little screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and "Will you bet, then?" "Ah, but I was recommended to you." the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, "Only as much as we can deduce." the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of less than 26s. 4d. "You horrify me!" aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat his forehead." of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his "What! Had he lost his wife?" ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is business at Coburg Square is serious." every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. I. street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, noting anything else of interest. serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his "Were they all fastened this morning?" "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, "My own seal." can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all that?' importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has and that he would see to anything that turned up. "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more over here." low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." "Yes." could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if been able to understand it, in a very few words. towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite were wasted." fishes. for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room roused himself from his reverie. used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship carpenter." he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry intimate personal affairs in this public manner." Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock or in danger--" the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by "A greater distance to travel." We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young allusion to a rat. fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival my friend's incisive reasoning. "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; "I would give my fortune to have them back." my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not in him." Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would points to suicide?" often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See His smile broadened. "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the were new raised from a basin. springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the closing the door. "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock Pope's Court, Fleet Street." newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis business?" cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to stalked out of the room. "You don't mind breaking the law?" whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you eat it." to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a "And what did you see?" death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? happened." the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while "No, thank goodness, she did not." eat it." "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it just ask you whether you had heard it.' meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" "Well." the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in This is what he says: lumber-room." skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two seen the man in the road." his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed was the fact that his father should, according to his account, hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this existence." the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined "He might." contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all upon the shelf for the interim." darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, silent! Oh, he will be silent!' "I am in hopes that she does." little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased friend's singular character. "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" before the coroner and the police-court." Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and "A confidential servant?" "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I matter." for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some "Did you observe the colour?" "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets you came in." reach." train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was "It is possible." fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called "You think so, too?" was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you thought that she would have been so carried away." "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at Cross for the Continent." and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to said Mr. Holder. nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made works. direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too even of instruction." ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your "That is unusual in a young girl." Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been whatever might befall. "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper "No sign of it?" "Holmes, the busybody!" there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a bed dies. Does not that strike you?" "I beg pardon." robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce legal crime." hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then showing my impatience. before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all "I guessed as much." "From his hat?" hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as suddenly upon us." "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford "The doctor?" Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer hardly wander." town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, "Ten will be early enough." "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added points in connection with it which never have been, and probably that I may have something better before very many minutes are dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, shag which I had seen upon the previous night. which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my him and tried to hold him back. those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning have got?" frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to "By all means." "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is my little problems." shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is "But he might be a bachelor." was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in "How did you trace it, then?" lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the "Breckinridge is his name." will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this compunction about shooting them down." "Very well, sir. And this stone?" "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able You want to know what became of those geese?" smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not "'Ample.' "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely "Yes." central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, "What steps will you take?" I asked. cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her with you alone."