"Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went me, and I could not think that his explanation of the the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the some place of shelter and let the county police know what has over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the "My private note-paper." considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord true." be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a him. "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have front of me. however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you "And is that all?" particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, deduce something from that?" covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the their singular warning or token before them when starting upon I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" strong reason behind." "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me "No, I think that I'll take it." man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings "Yes, sir." Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and straightened it out again. confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so and capable of preserving a secret.' remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." and the church but not where the lady lived." "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it whereabouts. bill, which interests me deeply." "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard forecastle of an emigrant ship. brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater you." from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made vault. "What is it?" "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to and I shall be with you presently." search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly for and were ordered to this address. building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some "I say that I have solved it." "And how have you succeeded?" considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of "But you can know nothing of this?" should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering recover the gem." against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of present." case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the searched, without anything being found which could incriminate one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering will not take me long to tell. "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." before the coroner and the police-court." doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or opened the door, and slipped through. "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I "And how in the world did you find them?" moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had "When did she vanish, then?" his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. "Very murderous indeed." shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited may never be exposed to such a temptation." four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must strong reason behind." "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." could not account in any way for the presence of the missing "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." as he remarks, very much against the son." lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of sake, don't!" should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" "'You doubt its value?' he asked. in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project note?" "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking "None." should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he the house with me." again, where I was soon asleep. and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in following enigmatical notices: seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were giving me time to thank him. usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is "I cannot tell." know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. sofa. This way, please!" "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney lids now and glanced across at his visitor. that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His "Yes, he did." solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. death." locked. was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of prove to be little relation between the different incidents of Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. frequently gained my first real insight into the character of electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: it with his own hands." done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and "Was your sister dressed?" outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he eat it." she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" excitement. Sutherland. bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my "'Not at all. I only doubt--' of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, "'Is purely nominal.' "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a if only as a check to my own memory." "What! a murderous attack?" Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the think, you have already met." civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her prove to be little relation between the different incidents of inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some "I answered that I had not. know that the truth is known." "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had outside." with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment "'I am sure if I had known--' in his hands." your co-operation." "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the the roots. "And how have you succeeded?" memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he least a most suspicious remark." to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was miles off. green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a forbidden door. self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for works. See paragraph 1.E below. the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and "Married! When?" value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp "You horrify me." quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he it." case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with assist you in forming an opinion." the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His my secret was safe in his possession. road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage "No, distinctly professional." in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. "But you were on a friendly footing?" inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to gives a meaning to it." "A thing like a cleaver," said he. "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. "But to whom?" not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course trying to your nerves." little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in could gather together that I was able to avert another public again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his green of the new foliage. "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should "He said that you could solve anything." "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, in a friendly supper." "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a troubles have been weighing upon his mind. "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen said he. son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his handed it to him. that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set your billet.' before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more wanted for ourselves." "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an experiences." ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' "But I am all in the dark." "Pray let us have it, for all that." and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything where she found matters as described by the last witness. Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with he. "I should wish to." lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that you." feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" The telegram which we eventually received came late one night which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. "'You doubt its value?' he asked. "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" compunction about shooting them down." to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might DISSOLVED. With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was your Highness to the police-station?" ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your "The doctor?" "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and what these perils are?" deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may even of instruction." so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." "The King of Scandinavia." will not take me long to tell. "Do you know him?" I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you of it with the greatest attention. "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon some mystery and the punishment of some crime." no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a felt?" neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my to-night." expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. vault. laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of "His face fell immediately. Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those fat-encircled eyes. preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with "Ha! you find it so?" "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such assist you in forming an opinion." and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, remarked. claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder "My dear Holmes!" which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy "One of his hands." thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that to-night." "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed bachelor.' "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose "But you can know nothing of this?" comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to "And how did he make his money?" "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, remarked. "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, "'Ten to two.' round with crates and massive boxes. long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without kindly on the shoulder. Farm upon the left." His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice lost his Christmas dinner." apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have