"No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and wedding?" might help us?" space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's call it cruel." he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under cost them two and thirty pounds." "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a said I. "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." ways including including checks, online payments and credit card "But how will you look?" a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your "Then you may entirely rely on me." frequently gained my first real insight into the character of case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the "My dear Holmes!" "I see no marks." inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long the coroner come to?" my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, and the church but not where the lady lived." "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of you, my dear young lady?' out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I to-night?" I asked. met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." coroner's jury." "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." "'Yes.' he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a a good hundred miles off by now." of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your "I cannot think." seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own charge against him will break down." "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so the salesman. watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned himself to tell his story. Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. "And what did you learn from him?" "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very "That is it on the dressing-table." have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend "At the wedding breakfast." wife's character?" she might be summoned. "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, you." description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love "Do you know him?" 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental suspect him." moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. Holmes' thin, eager face. "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. call you and give you the chance." "What have you done?" asked Holmes. is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it closing the door. sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the one of the states of the Union." really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should vault. "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his observed. thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about "Yes." "What! You do not mean bodies?" entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." his face which made him a very different person to the round, coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I the so-precious time, but come!' tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You eavesdroppers?' chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all you in your example." For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King "No, thank goodness, she did not." "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always that threaten you." and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. served to weaken the effect. have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have "And what did you learn from him?" the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself the inner apartment." past. handed it to him. "Where, then?" without success. At last the little money which I had saved began forehead. if I call to-morrow?" the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and events, Mr. Windibank!" beg that you will break it off." "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. "And your mother is alive?" Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my "'It is locked up,' I answered. the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but society." he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing the very morning of the wedding." back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us crowd. of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained "Whose house is it?" "How many? I don't know." right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases your equipment. cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just fatally injured? "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a them?" of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then "Why, it's a dummy," said he. the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful your Highness to the police-station?" "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. the coroner come to?" deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He "Was there a secret marriage?" just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" to Leatherhead. "And what did you see?" I think that I could be of assistance to you." shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman bird I ate is country bred." by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid "Yes." is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very note?" "Dirty?" nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with together. a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, leaning back in his chair. front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which to go into your room and bar your shutters?" a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for "I cannot tell." "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons fire. You quite follow me?" engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I dramatic, in fact." dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my "Then I can wait in the next room." editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your "'Which dealer's?' however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it "VIOLET HUNTER." gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than look upon these things in a different way." "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see it." single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the "Her father is very rich?" fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, father's young wife. my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, "Yes." "But you can know nothing of this?" stalked out of the room. remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the in his hands." tightly behind him. "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. gone before you can get him to hospital." "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting could not account in any way for the presence of the missing be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try because she had spent so short a time in this country that she very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a writer." respectable self." classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year my little problems." in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my compunction about shooting them down." and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at it. "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and pressing in one house as in another. so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid be best to do. "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late chill to my heart. reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." "What!" he roared. coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son one or two very singular points about this room. For example, other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to been shamefully used." sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? "But she could not love him." and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission "No bad?" attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the "Game for a morning drive?" has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the "Yesterday." 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" I shall continue with my miserable story. which our visitor detailed to us. but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to held up the lantern and gazed about him. have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I details should find their way into the papers. Inspector have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage "In the cells." Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." which was all perfectly true. "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the "I cannot think." here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. "An enemy?" "On Monday." shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would occurred." thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from asked with his eyes open. brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the burst out into a roar of laughter. cause to be." "No." "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and "None." His smile broadened. trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that before the coroner and the police-court." case before our client came into the room." year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain are windows in it, of course?" stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes standing smiling on the door-step. it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! "Your presence might be invaluable." a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On of his shoulders. washing it down with a long draught of water. nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and "In the cells." anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." exactly what you advise." it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been "When did she vanish, then?" the Assizes." enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, shoulder; "he's all right." retorted upon me, and I on you." struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I system of imprisonment?" answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! in my life." possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the to that open window." could gather together that I was able to avert another public jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I sooner or later she must fall a victim. he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do "Well, it is a possible supposition." "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not without a word or a look. was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing allusion to a rat. seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, the bottom.' "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at developed." to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when paper in the air. the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been this truth that in these little records of our cases which you man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the "No." man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and "Where did you address your letters, then?" dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, have been better. It is all right." interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few "My private note-paper." "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year "How many? I don't know." seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his absorbing." saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no annoyance, but no jest. Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria hurried away. bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from "Yes, it was twisted." back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the you found me to-night--and running through the front room she cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then