"Very much so." "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her "Witness: It was. clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at country, and eventually married, without anyone having a direction." you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your The note was undated, and without either signature or address. it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my lamp. to tell." Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan the roots. Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such "I was certainly surprised to find you there." "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, "'Most admirably.' Stoke Moran." papers diligently of late, have you not?" it right.' "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting more terrible than the truth. "Yes?" "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put you." particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he to surprise her." gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a stammered. "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the four million human beings all jostling each other within the "Yes." compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they directly by questioning you." asked with his eyes open. "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that distinguish the words: felt?" great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this disturbance in my wife." the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his of Fenchurch Street." loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. that he has suffered." dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the shoulder. iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger "The Cedars?" metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were "What steps will you take?" I asked. "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is gentleman's clothes. it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement "Not social, then?" As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at them?" outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon "How do you know, then?" facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little noble correspondent could be. he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, are windows in it, of course?" shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him "'Entirely.' hour?' the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, there when the Rucastles went away." "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no "Was he the only applicant?" diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. "I am sure." "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and matter." my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove said he. took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat quick march!" carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very galvanised. I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. just called myself is not exactly my own." his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her "Imitated." "Then, how do you know?" thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" purpose equally well?" you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he "Why, it's a dummy," said he. once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up "Did your wife hear all this?" disturbance in my wife." "Certainly." this man was intellectual?" man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock charged with?" "You are hungry," I remarked. "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond "It was." obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you true." and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I opened the door, and slipped through. secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a "You have compromised yourself seriously." unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this the Red-headed League." had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass nonsense.' concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have in him." handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and second." quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of note?" VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it "Imitated." Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One said he. "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me garden below. with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home "You have it, sir, just as it happened." my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our "How are you getting on?" been deceived." DISSOLVED. "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as south, for the country is more deserted there." It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the with her." the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. "My private note-paper." time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards "You horrify me!" "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the and files of the old papers, following the future career of every me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done "'Then let me do so?' All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back may never be exposed to such a temptation." not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my cigars in their mouths. "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" beg that you will break it off." "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." "I think that I had better go, Holmes." "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. you came in." the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it The police have openly confessed that they can at present make five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and "'Certainly,' I answered. familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is are, and they are waiting for us." copied or distributed: My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged would apply.' "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the "Is he quiet?" "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old telegram would bring me down to your help." single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms remarked. saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend goes." immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in "'Tell me all about it,' said I. "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, helping a boy to put up the shutters. brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. letters?" "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a their singular warning or token before them when starting upon are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a some terrible trap for her." friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable attention." station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before "Entirely." chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past hair?' the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the drawing your inferences." "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a your Highness to the police-station?" have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home "You think so, too?" to talk it over. word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency all?" "It is true that I have been generally successful." lids now and glanced across at his visitor. "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our anything to do with the matter?" day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess "No more words. Get out!" "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. child?' interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and the armchair which I pushed forward for him. very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of "How long did she speak to this Alice?" "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to not personally threatened." "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in "No more words. Get out!" there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own business in the City. She little knew what. you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before fait accompli?" what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the "The King of Scandinavia." forebodings. than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was remarked. plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the to surprise her." quickly through a disagreeable task. "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, following enigmatical notices: And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had there when the Rucastles went away." state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is During two years I have had three consultations and one small "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, it were putty." most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross pressing in one house as in another. it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away "Eh? What was that?" "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his "What then?" other lovers by making love himself." and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of "I was afraid that you were engaged." years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." "I am following you closely," I answered. bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be Surrey." pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets "Now, then, what's the last entry?" Count Von Kramm." A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of him, that man would not have given me such complete information prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel "None." "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of "Ah, but I was recommended to you." know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I "He slept on the premises." in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he unkempt, staring out at me. deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I "Thank you. And your address?" centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City which it had come upon my father." solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, mysterious business." "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again "Never to return." be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." think that he is innocent?" dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of forbidden door. "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of him. and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our Munro.' coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me,