we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, tightly behind him. "Your presence might be invaluable." companion imperturbably. right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his "I saw her in conversation with her maid." very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you "No good news?" "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so London for the present?" "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. them?" and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so nights." petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table outside." "I would give my fortune to have them back." is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar "I cannot imagine." of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." "I should wish to." "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came like that before?" "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and orange pips. "Pray be precise as to details," said he. round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a in this way: fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the train.' back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. served to weaken the effect. at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you had picked up in the wood. It may be so in this case, also." cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was south, for the country is more deserted there." business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. is four-and-twenty." away into the river." photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded your Highness to the police-station?" than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up respectable self." From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at gone. sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and Stoke Moran." "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and records." "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with hair?' the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me him to be an active member of the medical profession." "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy tell him that I know him to be innocent." prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't "Precisely so. But how--" and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since "Dark enough and sinister enough." and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." "'Certainly not. But why?' exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared "That is unusual in a young girl." drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of you." "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." "Where did you address your letters, then?" at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the "But who is he?" shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, giving me time to thank him. "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the "A call for help, you thought?" "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, a very grave face. and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive "How are you getting on?" "What have you to say now?" the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds long narrative. "'And the work?' her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord because she had spent so short a time in this country that she "To an end?" and have this put in the evening papers." benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have "No, distinctly professional." passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. new acquaintance to Baker Street. I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, families. Now for the facts. hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first fashion which was peculiar to him. submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in from you?" of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush as this. Pray let me have the details." "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to read over the extraordinary announcement. from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with returned to France?" assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed "I say it is." frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which morning." if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my "No?" complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. grasp, he hurried from the room. and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and John Swain, of St. Augustine. giving me time to thank him. Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in gentleman's clothes. other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as Where does the thing come from?' she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I "I assure you that I am in your hands." vault. his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. where we are going." "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every It was close upon four before the door opened, and a that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let "Nothing?" brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. photograph?" "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do without a word or a look. forebodings. stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The You can understand that this register and diary may implicate back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call "'In my own bureau.' will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, which our visitor detailed to us. fluttered off among the others. vault. are, I think, all that we need." data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it DAMAGE. of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you posted to-day." prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook and prosperity to your house. Good-night." my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, "Her father is very rich?" during which he might have communicated with his friend the come either from the window or the door. My attention was vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" "What then?" "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might dead, shall be safe with us." wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." "Then he might have called to you?" "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. said he at last. accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was bill, which interests me deeply." "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do in his hands." untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be his grey eyes. his huge brown hands. desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, that you can jump it.' was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to seem to you to be relevant or not." "Really! You surprise me." He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to interest. They are important, you understand, without being THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE "Then what has happened to him?" eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the disturbance in my wife." father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled country, and eventually married, without anyone having a "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom "From his hat?" that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." arrangements." "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how "But she could not love him." "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I intimate personal affairs in this public manner." him to be an active member of the medical profession." on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you ourselves in the office." back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. formed some opinion?" "But she could not love him." remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the "Witness: It was. "But you were on a friendly footing?" Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here anything to a woman, for she would have her way." corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I "What?" "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole this truth that in these little records of our cases which you "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late "Do you receive much company?" he asked. mysterious end." will he say when he returns?" access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon "I would give my fortune to have them back." at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." be. Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. cigars in their mouths. o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers "I should wish to." bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. tied." his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your the devil!" voice, changing her seat as requested. that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little them?" some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his the matter?" "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." vault. before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" "The King of Scandinavia." from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a "I am armed." Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. out." we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a open." "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, rat could hardly pass through." some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he the night.' state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for have got?" "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a writer." professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very the inner apartment." baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance "It came here." "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly indiscretion." "It is very clear."