interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. "Yes, I have one waiting." be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home hereditary King of Bohemia." "Yes?" I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon me." "Yes, sir." the address that was given us in the advertisement. may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in "No, I had a dozen." He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' awkward doing business with an alias." "I think that it is very probable." the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe the loss of it. my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated "He slept on the premises." and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now "What! a murderous attack?" once more to my work. come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all lost nothing by them." my room." fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia copied or distributed: vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner James Windibank. Voilà tout!" words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a brought there to personate someone, and the real person is my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say It was close upon four before the door opened, and a "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 "'Where could I find him?' your only hope of safety." not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded "And I." mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the lost his Christmas dinner." took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek are, I think, all that we need." aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was tension within him. used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about "He slept on the premises." that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I the address that was given us in the advertisement. outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." could gather together that I was able to avert another public advice." on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But away to you." on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to in the hope of finding them." the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his reach." corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger was a perfect sample of the class. beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed and no precautions can guard against." fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains three of the beryls in it, was missing. should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most trying to your nerves." "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, to Leatherhead. he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. noble correspondent could be. red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed "Imitated." "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his McCarthy." thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if London for the present?" photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before "It may not come to that," said Holmes. been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, I think that I could be of assistance to you." "What have you to say now?" made him keep the appointment." "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some "What! a murderous attack?" had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a delighted to hear it," he said. come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing residence of the great financier. This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. again before evening." follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a said I. "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though indeed happy." without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which His name is Francis Prosper." education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and "Not yet." begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to behind me. papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their "How did he come?" I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from "Your French gold?" "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his newspaper selections." those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its "You'll never persuade me to believe that." disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources "I was mad--insane." discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very been with you?" The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the make me his representative both with the servants and with the "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently "Then he might have called to you?" an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the not use it unless it is absolutely needed." is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." question," said Holmes, smiling. wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility "There is the writing." bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." "And why?" in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm "Well?" plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, "There are none." the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon "It must be recovered." "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a "Why, it's a dummy," said he. fluttered off among the others. "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. "Yes, there are nearly always some there." "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, "And Miss Sutherland?" observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for I shall communicate with you." in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off and no precautions can guard against." every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more "None." "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his envelope. fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to that, and I came down." "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been promised to bring home. Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an go from here to the Strand." work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish "By all means." fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light Edgeware Road. he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting hopeless attempt at recovering them." house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a that the gas is not laid on in his house?" dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, nonsense.' down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than "He said that you could solve anything." address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was "Was he the only applicant?" of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our forehead. constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of "And now?" I asked. "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest front of the hall door has given its name to the place. made him keep the appointment." as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are see me here to avoid scandal." gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I good for you to do.' "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, "Come in!" said he. in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the "If so, much may have happened between." "I cannot tell." present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew "Yes, only one." "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' Surrey." "But how could you guess what the motive was?" what these perils are?" "I assure you that I am in your hands." "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ The note was undated, and without either signature or address. again before evening." "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend and looked back. Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. to you." doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. problems help me to do so." "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the strong and stiff." my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. but preventing her from injuring another. annoyance, but no jest. and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece indeed which he could not unravel. the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the father's young wife. himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it "You are certainly joking, Holmes." Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when felt the room to be a little close.' "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and new duties?' "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and locked." however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, case before our client came into the room." my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only enter into my head. is worth.' when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear one of the states of the Union." him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are legal crime." "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise papers on the sundial.'" there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the be.' "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a down. down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the these bleak autumnal evenings." out of this horrible affair." "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. carried out of court." Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop "I would pay ten." "'And the work?' have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and 11:15.' assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better Street. had no one to advise her at such a crisis." moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy "What! a murderous attack?" how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt too. into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of "No, my brougham is waiting." events than those which have happened in my own family." my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his something of him before." The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar once more to my work. grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was are, and they are waiting for us." few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be newspaper selections." sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a gigantic client. "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." recover the gem." "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would "Holmes, the busybody!" hard-headed British jury." "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit you for a few hours?" approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who he. charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached begin with, and I had not got mine yet." That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall