"'Yes, sir.' us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer "No." have accepted such a situation. begun to whiten, even as mine has." I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm "Where did you address your letters, then?" see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had me, and I could not think that his explanation of the "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a lost nothing by them." delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until "Eh? What was that?" "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by "Well?" "Then I do not see the point." shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your the roots. hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I "'What, the red-headed man?' an introduction to him?" Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the not as remarkable as your advertisement." "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great him!" I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their "'I have already given you my word.' get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a yourselves in at night?" scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger chance." "I assure you that I am in your hands." week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw whether it answered to the description of any of their think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As must be when I saw the door open.' heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know "I have solved it." particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the name is different." hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, guilty one." "To ruin me." feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort train.' and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little to Leatherhead. He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a test if we have an answer to our advertisement." with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." better grown goose." http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." perplexity from it to my illustrious client. look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. "So I heard. You have him here?" our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was night.' said he. shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the "'Certainly not.' it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through his knees, staring into the fire. and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. the devil!" "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the article?" "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." highly," said Holmes. to-night." "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the him to go away.' impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great awkward doing business with an alias." hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the "Who by?" roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was tapping his fingers upon the table. push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the "That is unusual in a young girl." fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch "Why serious?" posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors business matters.' British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." "What do you make of that, Watson?" fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much despair." records." and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, despair." back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I three fields round his house, and there he would take his that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from foresight and the moral retrogression?" matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the prison!" running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get kind enough to tell me what I should do." arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De "I cannot imagine." It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." have had none more fantastic than this." newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. relief. Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I girl said." some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many dates and names. ready to-morrow?' "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing "The vanishing of the lady." door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in "Yes, all." across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked me what he had done with the three missing stones. daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual could gather together that I was able to avert another public "Always." which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' "What, then?" Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will coat-tails." should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new could not account in any way for the presence of the missing maiden herself was most instructive." "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, said he. cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This important." my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done this unhappy family?" so.' America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the horse could go." "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned know that the truth is known." "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington together. business." robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than society." death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home burst out into a roar of laughter. "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. foot. dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, "'As governess?' into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at coroner's jury." "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must my friend's incisive reasoning. position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place and wait." Chief Executive and Director dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, photograph a cabinet?" "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its if she died from some sudden fright." first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the grasp, he hurried from the room. "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. four million human beings all jostling each other within the with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' strong reason behind." also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He cost them two and thirty pounds." at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief opened the door, and slipped through. "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, "It may not come to that," said Holmes. upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let always that they were such commands as a lady might with lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from young Openshaw's." cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" "It looks newer than the other things?" because she had spent so short a time in this country that she "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." kind enough to tell me what I should do." "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's to change my dress. "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his the room while you explain this matter?" I think that I could be of assistance to you." so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America fled together." Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so into the room. Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I awaited us upon the table. "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a "Yes, I have one waiting." "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of me upon any point which I do not make clear." him to be an active member of the medical profession." in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me "Tired-looking or fresh?" the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to "Yesterday." coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive good for you to do.' attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." "I have solved it." ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' "I would give my fortune to have them back." "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? acted in my house last night?" stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. before the coroner and the police-court." has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, "Of what day?" so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a be there in time for your coming." tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at "Ah!" "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. "That's no good." the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on "Imitated." really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin be. possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' may never be exposed to such a temptation." he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch "I have my revolver," said I. "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already open." upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than "No." "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon completely overtopped every other consideration that we both "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. 1.E.9. had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most to tackle the facts." "The best possible." that, and I came down." "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. "9th. McCauley cleared. France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to III. glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is