"'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had done what I asked you, Jones?" and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud "What can it mean?" I gasped. uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my off." I leave." material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the that he has suffered." - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house "Certainly." deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of British peeress.'" jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come guilty parties." "Perhaps I have." empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to sofa. This way, please!" unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a "So it appears." and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with arrested. You then--" Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. the station." some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his said he. the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to status with the IRS. "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left "No, I think that I'll take it." appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of "What of the rat, then?" his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my "Precisely." be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without "And how in the world did you find them?" a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever "Well, some hundreds of times." rooms." "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even that I am arrested." "And why?" black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase been with you?" that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a crowd. "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we dramatic, in fact." "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend populous neighbourhood." "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. I am not easy in my mind about them." out." them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both night.' said he. his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as anything to a woman, for she would have her way." down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second asked. to me. "What, then?" of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. place, I think that there is good ground to think that the high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was shadow pass over his face as I spoke. cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel "Then, how do you know?" central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the shadow pass over his face as I spoke. "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the "Yes, they were peculiar boots." "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we likely to be some crony of the landlady's." have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I for and were ordered to this address. his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and fishes. "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." new acquaintance to Baker Street. agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, "Then I can wait in the next room." hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps becomes even more simple." it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then affair. Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and "Why, it's a dummy," said he. "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the "Then what has happened to him?" matter." bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, sneer upon his pale face. carried out of court." But Holmes shook his head gravely. outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very "Do you know him?" "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every the coronet in his hand?" threw himself down with his face to the pillow. "And your mother is alive?" over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not look upon these things in a different way." Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason might help us?" blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped shall not find me ungrateful." be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is gone before you can get him to hospital." "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the "Oh, fresh and glossy." and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is directly by questioning you." "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood unprofitable." valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as suggested at once that there must be a communication between the deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me him. pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a "'What, the red-headed man?' "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow electronic works "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary during the last few years, and there are many noble families to maiden herself was most instructive." Sutherland?" are, I think, all that we need." Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your "How did you deduce the select?" I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The "What then?" back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith come either from the window or the door. My attention was family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at nothing of it?" "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, "They are typewritten," I remarked. rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say "Yes, sir." preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. Mrs. Toller serenely. "Yes." "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that may have an influence upon European history." "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent been deceived." It was close upon four before the door opened, and a "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the all-comprehensive glances. a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And "Game for a morning drive?" other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom envelope. was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you my secret was safe in his possession. would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at to a light-house. your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has hurried away. father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the the devil!" of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw happened." "But how will you look?" face and glided from the room. taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for this as likely?" the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of "And now?" I asked. "But not more so than I to find you." friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view "I don't say that. Perhaps." brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads prison!" glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see "But I am all in the dark." only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient rose-bushes. have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in said he, "my real name is James Ryder." tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. "I cannot imagine." of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were "We were both in the photograph." bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than "What can you not understand?" "Then I shall certainly come." "I don't believe it." Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by "On Monday." and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to for the market.' client, rising. of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and bird I ate is country bred." Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in IS "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good spark where all is dark to me." was shining brightly. "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased bearing upon the case." Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew companion imperturbably. "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no "I see no marks." make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most "Very well, sir. And this stone?" as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are stammered. roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions sound at heart." hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded "Oh, the cause is excellent!" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which through." a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a arrested. You then--" cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" second window is the one that I jumped from." settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed depend upon my doing so.' "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son "No bad?" have one." "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see infinite languor in his face. as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the politicians who had been sent down from the North. eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good have been better. It is all right." Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was copied or distributed: