observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off drawing your inferences." one's self under obligations.' devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady lamp in his hand. quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was on re-entering her father's house?" the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement seem to you to be relevant or not." "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the recall any case within my experience which looked at the first better grown goose." we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can Henry Baker is a member." the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no maiden herself was most instructive." "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where meanly of me." electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself remarked. ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my "Never." "How did you trace it, then?" go--none." been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his jewels which you have stolen?' "He said that you could solve anything." one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to "But you would not advise me to refuse?" He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and "I think it very unlikely." some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike suggested at once that there must be a communication between the Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative the iron safe, which he closed upon it. look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under without success. At last the little money which I had saved began years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a his wife has ceased to love him." you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as enough to aid us in our search." "Texas, I think." "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my other lovers by making love himself." something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." "'Yes, sir.' ran thus: doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the "And you can do nothing until then?" Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, the bottom.' "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his room had already been engaged for us. License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this "On your arm?" will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of I. light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is "Yes." "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather it." "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the the child." that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his locked. of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would footfalls from the street. "What can it mean?" I gasped. moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake pressing in one house as in another. breakfast and whispered something to her husband. conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." salesman. We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account speckled band?" "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, "It is true that I have been generally successful." to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a fire. You quite follow me?" envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's mystery." "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with his eyes and forehead. profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to photograph a cabinet?" the nursery. could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass of it with the greatest attention. at once, for I have only half an hour." "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging one or two very singular points about this room. For example, as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us new acquaintance to Baker Street. me what he had done with the three missing stones. mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began "It is very clear." labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached "What will you say?" untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction "Yes, I have one waiting." set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms second." "It was." these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" yourselves in at night?" "The landlord of the Alpha." As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, this as likely?" believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither past. earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on some city in a dream. analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without I took the paper from him and read as follows: engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away been lifted and conveyed somewhere." "You don't mind breaking the law?" better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." good-night and bustled off upon her way. by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. colour had been driven from his face. although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master gone. labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." purpose equally well?" he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him "I answered that I had not. side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most generous with you in money matters.' a monotonous occupation." known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be During two years I have had three consultations and one small his forehead." "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you "Yes." that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at "It missed him, then?" you." spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in notes," he said. himself in a perplexing position. "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" the Red-headed League." "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. correct than the official force." girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming on in his house." there were so many in the whole country as were brought together "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you present." upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the "I think it very unlikely." "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post nonsense.' all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I be. open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him other, as fresh and trim as possible. answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and "No." comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the appointment with me for six o'clock?" "On Monday." all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to it with his own hands." room?" recall any case within my experience which looked at the first "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever "I was afraid that you were engaged." papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and "'Certainly not.' "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. respectable self." Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." back to my heart. to-morrow." "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in chemical work which was so dear to him. clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of never came back." slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which again on its way. "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were "Whose house is it?" slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a all?" Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the your troubles." 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in the very morning of the wedding." wedding?" "I saw her in conversation with her maid." success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a he died? he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria the bed, and you in that chair." He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third "But it has twice been burgled." lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of pictures, libraries, or plate. "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the "Not him." "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' through." appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to without success. At last the little money which I had saved began "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man to his chemical studies. the dangers which encompass me." sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise suggested at once that there must be a communication between the "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some singular points about the case. What did the police think of the "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon "I do." Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the my special province." "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but "Certainly." I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found province." admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to the Friday. Was it to be in church?" And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for that he has suffered." "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short "Stoke Moran?" said he. "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the him. you?" room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for 1.F. "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and "No good news?" sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" tied." which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman sentimental considerations in the background which would induce in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a more solid." heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in "We must sit without light. He would see it through the - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the "How are you getting on?" our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. the side-table."