my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one has little to do with my story." other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an Munro.' "Ha! you find it so?" dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the to have that photograph." despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward she used." brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these acquaintance?" fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in cost them two and thirty pounds." however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The for its centre. predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried details should find their way into the papers. Inspector initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into "I was mad--insane." self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of three fields round his house, and there he would take his "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' would then never go into court at all." fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as it." thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, http://www.gutenberg.net building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I suddenly upon us." silent! Oh, he will be silent!' in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. to have been novel and of interest." children over to America with him, so that I found myself without "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the begin with, and I had not got mine yet." she has been waylaid. There has been no result." took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the "I never have." As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. have one." "It goes to the housekeeper's room." "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it hard-headed British jury." manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is an introduction to him?" goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches and effective." in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all "Why did you beat the pavement?" done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are ordinary clothes on?" "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable sentimental considerations in the background which would induce "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news "What then?" reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my him and tried to hold him back. away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker "Yes." matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version "Indeed! Whose, then?" all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, light and attacked it." just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, "What steps will you take?" I asked. province." permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main "And I." "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative is worth.' "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some strength." do.' "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can said he at last. "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. your sleep?' Young McCarthy must be got off, however." owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter will he say when he returns?" us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a "Which are?" "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? his forehead." "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the business." "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left absolutely follow my advice in every respect." where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he this unhappy family?" Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my constraint." I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this written, and locked the door of the office after me. did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is them present such singular features as the strange train of "Look there!" said he. "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might "Yesterday." brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt with frightened eyes at his accuser. of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." bed dies. Does not that strike you?" it means?" hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a help us in this matter." "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." than was visible to me." the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be The events in question occurred in the early days of my opened the door, and slipped through. upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. it means?" "I have my revolver," said I. an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying me have 200 pounds?' peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every "Yesterday." "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can Mary, has deserted me." it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a "Awake, Watson?" he asked. parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the corner of the building. the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself The telegram which we eventually received came late one night He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this article?" though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." already been minutely examined." said he. of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties sit on the left-hand side of the driver." "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite constraint." II. but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing "But I have heard all that you have heard." down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a questionable one." "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this him!" estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, rose-bushes. "Very truly yours, named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back in one or two places in England?' an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael 11:15.' disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun how narrow had been my escape. boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his ceremony." works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility Eyford at 11:15.' he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered has little to do with my story." vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, jewels which you have stolen?' "'Then let me do so?' prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common the coronet in his hand?" carpenter." shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of certainly not very gracious." "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" "'Where to?' my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of "He is dead," cried several voices. "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" "And who is her maid?" it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to "BALLARAT." will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and unkempt, staring out at me. "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp "Then I do not see the point." providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted "Very well, sir. And this stone?" cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his "Yes." "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." swore that no one else had been in the front room during the seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of any little problem which you may submit to me." state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was "Whose house is it?" "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be American. Then who could this American be, and why should he sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' it." myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from "Come in!" said Holmes. course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my "That is possible." strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" look dissatisfied." you want, then?' "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was lost his Christmas dinner." is four-and-twenty." lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her where we are going." travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the "Breckinridge is his name." vanished into the darkness. reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a invisible to me," I remarked. "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls some place of shelter and let the county police know what has "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." have got?" "Where did he live, then?" parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been "Yes. He waved his hands." As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe "And on what day did he meet his death?" "But I am all in the dark." however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, minor matters until to-morrow." in his hands." insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, "You have compromised yourself seriously." "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. "I promise," said Holmes. started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance awaited us upon the table. He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire think you a quite exceptional woman." through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My