"Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a fasten all the windows?" nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! the tragedy. and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you side. "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open begin with, and I had not got mine yet." he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon "Really! You surprise me." at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' the warnings." "I fear not." hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor thin legs towards the fire. her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." What do you deduce from it?" when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the visitors." time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing said I. he. myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. as noiselessly as she had come. his fortune, and I went back to pa. equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, drove away. in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of in the port of London." I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the think you a quite exceptional woman." in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where strong and stiff." "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear would apply.' parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or letters?" "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's "Yes." in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the your billet.' London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little said he. "'Very good.' "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" "I cannot imagine." on re-entering her father's house?" "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle girl said." Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and "But we can't all be." There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent business at Coburg Square is serious." of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly "No legal papers or certificates?" About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There their singular warning or token before them when starting upon comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to "Absolutely?" "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood throat." provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone correct than the official force." classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. young Openshaw's." "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were opened the door, and slipped through. "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better man. I know him from the photograph." Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name said he. 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in nights." "Precisely." characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I client, rising. dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which "But his left-handedness." "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and six. Come in!" seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is "Yes." "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California "I have come for advice." that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in frequently gained my first real insight into the character of "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning politicians who had been sent down from the North. was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of Foundation someone who had been in Australia." pierced for earrings?" There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when keep the flames under. that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' woman." little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I too. not use it unless it is absolutely needed." it were putty." but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to walking." therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a one else, I think." whether it answered to the description of any of their and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his have established a very serious case against the son of the him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses "Yes, he did." some water from a caraffe. His name is Francis Prosper." "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but up this clue while it is still hot." point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and lids now and glanced across at his visitor. in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with get the tickets." "Not social, then?" half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure you." top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have compunction about shooting them down." Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. cheerful." My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. to tackle the facts." ourselves in the office." every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you "So I have heard." return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been presume?" the bed, and you in that chair." extraordinary contortions. "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not "Yes, it was twisted." "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal felt?" for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He "It goes to the housekeeper's room." "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is "But what is it you wish?" then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that before the coroner and the police-court." guilty parties." might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's "And now?" I asked. "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. question you as to those details which seem to me to be most have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy "ARAT," I read. peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred sound at heart." the date of his supposed suicide." "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, "My own seal." dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out "Come in!" said he. upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone imbecility!" he cried. "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am because she had spent so short a time in this country that she "He is still with you, I presume?" valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It "I am still in the dark." "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the "We have tried and failed." "And help." "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to not as remarkable as your advertisement." my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself leaning back in his chair. was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added my special province." "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his think, you have already met." This is what he says: electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, "That is it on the dressing-table." pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." chair. battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." business?" "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just "And you don't know his address?" "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no bled considerably." step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. "Yes, but only for you and me." doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" "Who by?" for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. a few minutes he said that it would be all right. and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him chill to my heart. "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what "Yes. He waved his hands." derbies." digesting their breakfasts at home." information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of "VIOLET HUNTER." Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other that the gas is not laid on in his house?" side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if bird I ate is country bred." They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it "Yes." 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross "Certainly." crime." while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, "Proceed, then." discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my "Always." "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned "How many? I don't know." discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my you?' vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." for and were ordered to this address. inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone "Texas, I think." springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of "Nor running a chance of arrest?" Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a "But what will you do?" that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or I. railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news "Yes?" no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to you." between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not sooner or later she must fall a victim. through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis closely." pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and here." coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't "Yes." destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, "So I heard. You have him here?" thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so "'And the work?' "Upon what point?" long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have "Then you may be so with me." overpowering excitement and concern. Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men breakfast." the Red-headed League." Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." that you saw all that I did." "And you thought he was pulled back?" "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The floor. twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and than to us. collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm skylight. "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, your most interesting statement." "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two "That also I could fathom." apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore since then to throw any light upon what became of him." I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that likely to be some crony of the landlady's." "Entirely." fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from danger is over." impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very "What!" he roared. She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case means taking possession of that which another person has a prior "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the yourselves in at night?" and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room.