man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to business." recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my "A greater distance to travel." official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled his cane at the bell-pull. "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical "Where did he live, then?" second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of "To an English lawyer named Norton." opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose pictures, libraries, or plate. "Well, but China?" the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up through." base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this His smile broadened. foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking advice." looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of used to be." lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my "'Why that?' I asks. stalked out of the room. "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have awaited us upon the table. I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me speckled band?" did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an secret." the loss of it. "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you child?' Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of the stable lane now." "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I heavily into it. "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, stalked out of the room. electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which "Quite so. She has her freedom." to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. "I say that I have solved it." just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it jewels which you have stolen?' "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. wedding?" time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it shall use the carriage to-night." call for it in person on Monday morning.' suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." again." some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The if only as a check to my own memory." the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." "But I have heard all that you have heard." one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss "But your client--" purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our 1.F. "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" all?" with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as Lestrade of Scotland Yard." "By no means." them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his this as likely?" "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the "What I expected to see." coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to lids now and glanced across at his visitor. "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and simple cases which are so extremely difficult." where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up closing the door. thin, with a long, sharp nose?" was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with in the dead of the night?' "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of "What can you not understand?" sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was the child." depend upon your compliance." know that the truth is known." "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be question. to surprise her." hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle south, for the country is more deserted there." "'As governess?' the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "I am sure." Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. tell me that you intended to go into harness." base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already said Mr. Holder. gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my make me his representative both with the servants and with the yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the whether it answered to the description of any of their action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then "The Cedars?" be. and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. only touch the interest." handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we status with the IRS. "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the "Will you bet, then?" "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She bare slabs of marble. age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a laugh and put his lips to my ear. child?' confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed The King stared at him in amazement. Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting "If I can be of use." bedroom door." made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" sound at heart." companion imperturbably. was keenly on my guard against him. "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to papers on the sundial.'" in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, to tell." "What are they?" his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the "But it has twice been burgled." the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid himself to tell his story. ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is ill-usage at the hands of fortune. was a lad." whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked detained." "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before silent! Oh, he will be silent!' the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls when your master had gone out." quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did you." "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting "What shall I do?" became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique foot. thought that she would have been so carried away." centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a "But how will you look?" shaken than I had ever seen him. "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual into the room. you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, "In what way?" asked Holmes. his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted "You have compromised yourself seriously." "Yes. He waved his hands." permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as "But you have hopes?" Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in "In the cells." my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any Countess of Morcar's?" classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year "Very much so." He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His "No more words. Get out!" "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, "Which are?" "What then?" wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to what do you think they found in the pockets?" peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding "10th. John Swain cleared. "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon characteristics, but those are the more obvious." and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing "That is easily got." "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to writers could invent nothing more crude." - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went new duties?' And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you "It is no ordinary one." on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands I approached. confronted him. or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have me, and I could not think that his explanation of the nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor again." only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of putting in the horse. "Eh? What was that?" though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, late!' dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while until night should bring an explanation. to me. telegram would bring me down to your help." ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. "Witness: Nothing definite. objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, "It is no ordinary one." with the outside air!" to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a examination of the premises, but without finding anything which Chief Executive and Director grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses girl said." "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the "She showed me, as I told you she would." which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked never to learn it at all." "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be "Here?" horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such "By all means." come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We made him keep the appointment." very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and Holmes' thin, eager face. "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action as the one I chose?' "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he "Why, what do you mean?" directors have had misgivings upon the subject." Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case *** START: FULL LICENSE *** wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you appeared upon the scene." "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All "You have it, sir, just as it happened." more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to "The murder was done with it." me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" beg that you will break it off." writer." Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention side. "Not particularly." and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as cost them two and thirty pounds." no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did exactly what you advise." may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as entirely lost his self-respect." "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and once more for Briony Lodge. Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, with the outside air!" affair. the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the "But he might be a bachelor." the very morning of the wedding." expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, had a long day." beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his down in his armchair and closing his eyes. him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting Holmes' face clouded over. His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his