would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend depend upon my doing so.' since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached From what you have told me I think that it is possible that "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened our word." open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and "He might." absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly upon the sideboard." Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. the date of his supposed suicide." answered with a sidelong glance. "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird "Quite so." defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most security.' "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the union?" "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled American. Then who could this American be, and why should he was keenly on my guard against him. I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past "And on what day did he meet his death?" bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this 1.E.9. frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in "Ha! you find it so?" "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to matter." "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case night.' said he. status with the IRS. to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's and capable of preserving a secret.' "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were have had none more fantastic than this." "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police "Then he might have called to you?" "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at is so. I know all about McCarthy." Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. Street. To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has someone who had been in Australia." "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him "About a month then." "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to into the bag, and made for the door. size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid which our visitor detailed to us. "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles "That is easily got." "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was than was visible to me." foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, the south-west, I see." fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting of receipt of the work. "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. floor. even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed "Tired-looking or fresh?" papers." his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I information in his hands the value of which he did not himself in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the "Come in!" said Holmes. "By train from Waterloo." man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room yourselves in at night?" Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to roused himself from his reverie. laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and was used.' he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of acted in my house last night?" "I would pay ten." his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. "Is he quiet?" better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite amused." "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, "And Miss Sutherland?" weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington "I was mad--insane." against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some States. Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and has little to do with my story." dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and chance." and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. never came back." stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. "I cannot say that I have." "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said row." a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a second window is the one that I jumped from." half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, and files of the old papers, following the future career of every if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, hopeless attempt at recovering them." deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly himself. the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: "There is the writing." Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. fattened it expressly for you.' "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked dramatic, in fact." having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very o'clock is it?" side. "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" "I am about to be married." lamp. "That is possible." gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a fluttered off among the others. withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own "Her father is very rich?" We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and late." man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where matter over." other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little "I have my revolver," said I. "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle intrusion of other matters." advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of asked. "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." copied or distributed: examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you light and attacked it." has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working one or two very singular points about this room. For example, asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A breakfast?" a room. cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it "The landlord of the Alpha." "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of one else, I think." stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, "Ha! you find it so?" in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let have accepted such a situation. or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would fasten all the windows?" object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, "The rest you will leave in our hands." been." registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman and laid it on the table. watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on helping a boy to put up the shutters. was used.' John Swain, of St. Augustine. the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, handed it to him. business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and make me his representative both with the servants and with the abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me "Do you go out much in society?" "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too "So I have heard." "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the his forehead." roused himself from his reverie. word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and of Fenchurch Street." Holmes' room. safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else "Your French gold?" who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. John Swain, of St. Augustine. Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the man. I know him from the photograph." to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons eavesdroppers?' His name is Francis Prosper." "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel future lives." the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able with the outside air!" through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the "'Never.' dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. Surrey." "You were travelling in the States?" opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main John Swain, of St. Augustine. his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was "Has he come with you to-night?" "Was your sister dressed?" "I think that I had better go, Holmes." hurried by. grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds "Never." grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A DAMAGE. villagers almost as much as their master. half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular to miss it." "Where did you address your letters, then?" occurred." wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the "I should be immensely obliged to you." "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous you." been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads money should be paid at once.' which we had just quitted. Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much how narrow had been my escape. departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable Where does the thing come from?' "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He locked." the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking that, and I came down." father's young wife. excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue would apply.' "But we can't all be." the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my anything to do with the matter?" a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, and wait." just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of my friend's incisive reasoning. say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the residence of the great financier. "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of tell me that you intended to go into harness." "Ten will be early enough." new acquaintance to Baker Street. "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low affection." "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of "That also I could fathom." instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" "Yes." "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an I have it here in my museum." "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six "Just look it up, then." "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. away in different directions, and I went off to make my own "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the unprecedented a position." have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal three of the beryls in it, was missing. I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, Heh?' "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling conversation I have gathered that they have been married about jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I giving me time to thank him. the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We "'What, the red-headed man?' to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier.