"What! Had he lost his wife?" thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel shag which I had seen upon the previous night. "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" Munro.' saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the him!" that before taking the final step I should like to submit the "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to astonishment. I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand "That sounds a little paradoxical." were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Street. thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of burst out into a roar of laughter. he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a round and wave him away like that.' its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" derbies." halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." Where does the thing come from?' to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his him nearly every evening." We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible "I think that I had better go, Holmes." gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. anything to do with the matter?" breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, said I. gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took "What is it?" been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah system of imprisonment?" there were so many in the whole country as were brought together in this note: that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did views." "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little of receipt of the work. "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. it means?" wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us have not had my rubber." "But his lameness?" "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his green of the new foliage. dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new from you?" "Will you go?" "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." outsides of the windows. and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. coroner's jury." "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," used to be." these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort waste of energy." in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. The summons was a brief and urgent one. not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious "The knees of his trousers." the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, "But you can know nothing of this?" I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it "The best possible." which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in easy-going way." return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every again on its way. memory. I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number his eyes and forehead. them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very the bottom.' again on its way. "My own seal." took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an your room." Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell for the market.' did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most kind enough to tell me what I should do." inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave meant it for the best. reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn skylight. finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of jewels which you have stolen?' guilty one." them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I to change my dress. with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, "Pray continue your narrative." "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated felt the room to be a little close.' home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the business." "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots "What can you not understand?" been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side hereditary King of Bohemia." suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." must compliment you." cigar and let me expound." "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it "Ha! you find it so?" informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable "Was there a secret marriage?" "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, key of the affair now." had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself Arthur Conan Doyle I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the "Then what has happened to him?" "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of was a perfect sample of the class. something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that Again Holmes raved in the air. retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm "Seven!" I answered. humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was seem to you to be relevant or not." shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular morning." clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and "My dear Holmes!" At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had stalked out of the room. too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot said he. or other trace. But how on earth--" estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, morning." I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." upon an income of about 60 pounds." feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' "Yes, that is the Crown." "Perhaps we may make them less so." "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round strange features which were associated with the two crimes which October 9, 1890. herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to I approached. and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot and effective." round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to "'It is locked up,' I answered. been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. to a more successful conclusion." true." instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a matter." notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a "Then you may entirely rely on me." "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that "It is a murder, then?" "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry matter." "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. bears upon the case?" "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant absolutely follow my advice in every respect." should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for yourselves in at night?" waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch "'And what salary do you ask?' thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open "But she will refuse." "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." about. "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of already referred to. corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I had picked up in the wood. This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with again on its way. "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, the child." "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his the Red-headed League." the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a over his head with a sweet womanly caress. over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! their singular warning or token before them when starting upon it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight "I am armed." go back?" "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings "No legal papers or certificates?" that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes of your young ladies.' "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud said I. "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as "May I see it?" sit on the left-hand side of the driver." when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire was feeling which was the fattest.' with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch "Ah, but I was recommended to you." them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, was the fact that his father should, according to his account, Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping village inn over there?" "Of what day?" it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one situation." the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I criminal. We have already had experience of such." that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility directors have had misgivings upon the subject." I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" "By train from Waterloo." "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil "It is true that I have been generally successful." essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to Miss Holder?" transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this some place of shelter and let the county police know what has hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out residence of the great financier. because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. are, I think, all that we need." 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." and wait." "Pray be precise as to details," said he. you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. drove away. one's self under obligations.' trying to your nerves." writing, and yet I know it well." every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the points in connection with it which never have been, and probably searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of "Well, some hundreds of times." my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a he bowed and left the room without another word. "An accident, I presume?" Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what place, I think that there is good ground to think that the he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the to change my dress. gigantic client. house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the than was visible to me." vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." "Then I do not see the point." address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those breakfast." "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten "A thing like a cleaver," said he. her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which wanted for ourselves." the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the your billet.' Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, entirely devoid of interest." Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put "It is possible." fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE "And why?" in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my persecution?" "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, "'I have already given you my word.' have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are "Then, as to money?" side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the