their singular warning or token before them when starting upon "None." "'You cannot say what it was?' he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End thought that she would have been so carried away." opened the door, and slipped through. before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a rooms." "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, "Stoke Moran?" said he. other, as fresh and trim as possible. say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs "I see many objections to any such theory." Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the "At what time?" a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be done what I asked you, Jones?" glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He "'Not at all. I only doubt--' habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into "But to whom?" "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to to some other building. chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets "But you would not advise me to refuse?" part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest into her hand at the door and which lured her within their records." to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our "So I am. Very much so." Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home me what he had done with the three missing stones. "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt his face which made him a very different person to the round, unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle to-night?" I asked. red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came "Yes, it was twisted." to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel "Frequently." heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest towards the blaze. "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that John Swain, of St. Augustine. a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. and the whole place is in a blaze." analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. because she had spent so short a time in this country that she would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is brain must have something in it." 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may to that open window." yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was "I should wish to." morning." "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing events, Mr. Windibank!" she to prove their authenticity?" But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she investigation." "Of what?" with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There "The Coroner: What do you mean? other, as fresh and trim as possible. his huge brown hands. drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch "Pray be precise as to details," said he. "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot "But how could you guess what the motive was?" teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us and capable of preserving a secret.' Pool. stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you before, for it was considerably after midnight. ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made morning." first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he she might be summoned. in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive shall not find me ungrateful." ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." she used." "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' "The murder was done with it." impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little "Then the page we have seen--" "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months "What can it mean?" I gasped. repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her populous neighbourhood." stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to cigars in the box." "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, "One?" "She showed me, as I told you she would." "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend "And when will you call?" "When did she vanish, then?" derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to call for it in person on Monday morning.' "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, and laid it on the table. everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I definite end. "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He conclusions. would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds "What is it, then--a fire?" have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." Pope's Court, Fleet Street." "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very likely to be some crony of the landlady's." description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your McCarthy's innocence. "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be make me his representative both with the servants and with the sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at redistribution. as he folded up the epistle. my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of empty. ill-usage at the hands of fortune. "Witness: It was. photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of perplexity from it to my illustrious client. writing, and yet I know it well." abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely breakfast and whispered something to her husband. "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he "'Is purely nominal.' "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in been with you?" the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit standing smiling on the door-step. bed dies. Does not that strike you?" servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible "To the police?" fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own security.' 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about which we had just quitted. know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her "Nothing?" eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his least a fellow-countryman. really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit easy-going way." and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes "But your client--" justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do "I am still in the dark." ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist indiscretion." is four-and-twenty." this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For weapon." seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to nice household for a young lady." never came back." Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, "'Certainly,' I answered. than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. skylight. it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, compunction about shooting them down." grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. if only as a check to my own memory." the salesman. it means?" watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a "What, then, did Peterson do?" he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural be best to do. other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange "To an end?" with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after begin with, and I had not got mine yet." and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. the Assizes." feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of before the coroner and the police-court." employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." that I am arrested." "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the fear." "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very "Stolen." be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. "In the cells." "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be This is what he says: the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from where we are going." the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you http://www.gutenberg.net in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. any little problem which you may submit to me." "Yes, sir." the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. "I think that it is very probable." it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly my room." Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too "It was." humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call "'Quite sure, dad.' buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the hand, madam?" "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's cigars in the box." departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some sooner or later she must fall a victim. on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, "Certainly, madam." "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent "I am armed." "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." mysterious business." over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is "'Yes, it was gone.' than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my most important business. It is probable that he will be away all They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and of the efforts of the United States government and of the better Pool. had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is photograph?" wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my a good hundred miles off by now." call you and give you the chance." Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." "Then how many are there?" one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of lumber-room." "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. "I came to find a friend." days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened astonishment. face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes becomes even more simple." heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, answer." not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the point in the dark hollow of his hand. Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. "But you were on a friendly footing?" beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and conclusions. suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind "Certainly." do.' "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his mysterious business." "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the read it out to me." address. where we are going." began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few "Stolen, then." rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic nice household for a young lady." skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his indiscretion." signal between you and your father? whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he "Two days later this same performance was gone through under now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of "I was afraid that you were engaged." your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us pity, because in other respects you would really have done very cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & weighed down with some great anxiety. landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted this remarkable episode. say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about three of the beryls in it, was missing.