surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is him to be an active member of the medical profession." plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, the best of training." "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast cigars in their mouths. "No, thank goodness, she did not." the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, "But not more so than I to find you." "One of his hands." hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client page at http://pglaf.org comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that "To an end?" present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One Chief Executive and Director he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United just ask you whether you had heard it.' all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, straighten it?" "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the prisoner's face. occurred." most interesting one." fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought burst into a hearty fit of laughter. a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. stalked out of the room. old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a "You forget that I know nothing about it." however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and should be so warm over such a trifle." was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for were new raised from a basin. said I. "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven exactly what you advise." black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make quickly through a disagreeable task. set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the "'How far from the body?' drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is "What is it?" or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your "I should be immensely obliged to you." of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. drawing your inferences." black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too and prosperity to your house. Good-night." faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is closing the door. gone. return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your "What will you do, then?" take the flies, but not before." "In answer to an advertisement." cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. cheerful." "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in "Have you it here?" you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank "But not more so than I to find you." Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every bed dies. Does not that strike you?" "So I heard. You have him here?" "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk of Fenchurch Street." had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to "The knees of his trousers." "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for believe that I should never have any practice at all. went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know observed. to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, fait accompli?" conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, paper in the air. was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all "'Yes, sir.' beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. them?" retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless acted in my house last night?" clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of speckled band?" this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it "No, thank goodness, she did not." be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the vault. to his chemical studies. prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is fire. You quite follow me?" "Well." were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage noise which awoke you from your sleep?" "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should and prosperity to your house. Good-night." knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." returning from some small jollification and was making his way client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn interested in these little problems, and since you are good firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and pound a week." temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help directors, with the result that you have seen." client, rising. "It certainly sounds feasible." "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my learned something! Where are the gems?" should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of "Ha! you find it so?" daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and "Perhaps I have." recall any case within my experience which looked at the first that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were question. noting anything else of interest. guilty parties." wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily "The vanishing of the lady." "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I skylight. that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. Pope's Court, Fleet Street." said he. earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles light and attacked it." his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between the room while you explain this matter?" every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of "What can it mean?" I gasped. "It came here." reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known this poor creature." miles off. considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must hereditary King of Bohemia." so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at society." like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our "Her father is very rich?" front of the hall door has given its name to the place. "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the "How about poison?" so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have yet." that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which your room." ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. plantation.' cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that presented more singular features than that which was associated "No bad?" where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to long narrative. company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the unclasping of his long thin hands. direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small "Yes, but only for you and me." road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of for the market.' "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there DISSOLVED. had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, that you can jump it.' "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." "'Which dealer's?' outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even Pool. "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents outbreak?" glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and "You horrify me!" Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of "Yes, only one." inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There over his head with a sweet womanly caress. occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but which was all perfectly true. complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt so far?" room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so McCarthy." but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low believe that I should never have any practice at all. "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. yourselves in at night?" were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was swore that no one else had been in the front room during the "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of "Very well, sir. And this stone?" Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what "It is to him that this trophy belongs." happened." all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we clang of the bell. We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for and the colonel ushered me in. my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with my former friend and companion. lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was directly by questioning you." "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. from the brougham. when your master had gone out." has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I I nodded to show that I had heard. that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly his face which made him a very different person to the round, maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw "'Ample.' And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. "So it appears." "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In father's place of business?" There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors might have a private word with us. "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a "You'll never persuade me to believe that." the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the forecastle of an emigrant ship. "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said address. so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at place, I think that there is good ground to think that the the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the me where it went to?" appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to "May I see it?" "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a him, that man would not have given me such complete information may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' chemical work which was so dear to him. buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley following enigmatical notices: Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I other, as fresh and trim as possible. "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most "No. What a strange idea!" "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he that threaten you."