outbreak?" would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." him nearly every evening." pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train people in all walks of life. without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so "No, distinctly professional." work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a "I don't say that. Perhaps." Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." writing, and yet I know it well." jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his case before our client came into the room." but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six "She walked into the breakfast-room." akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set at home. weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon here." he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are "At what time?" the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a do.' smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. generous with you in money matters.' houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, hour." following enigmatical notices: this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in "And I to find an enemy." in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." front of the hall door has given its name to the place. lost his Christmas dinner." hair?' "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" "Did he not advertise?" may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the correct than the official force." going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and conversation I have gathered that they have been married about in him." Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable villagers almost as much as their master. muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, "Where did you address your letters, then?" is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that taking in every detail of the apartment. suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned out of this horrible affair." shall not find me ungrateful." Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge directors have had misgivings upon the subject." Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I "Which surely he restored to their owner?" unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." he. can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." society." cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police "Who was the criminal, then?" beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' "That is possible." Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one assist you in forming an opinion." "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." voice. "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the in the hope of finding them." settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you Munro.' "I cannot think." knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very over his head with a sweet womanly caress. with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high "'Never,' said I. "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had washing it down with a long draught of water. "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, the nursery. He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and at my remark. her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. "Was she in good spirits?" too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." sit on the left-hand side of the driver." yourselves in at night?" upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do wedding?" "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the back alive. friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while been deceived." the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on client, rising. front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then to miss it." suddenly upon us." had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." at a side door. "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when think you a quite exceptional woman." "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something the little opening for the ventilator is." the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg easy-going way." feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your newspaper selections." cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save with the outside air!" "Yes, there are nearly always some there." *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and "In heaven's name, what for?" the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of her also." the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might "And I say east," said my patient. hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features "I am armed." "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could "Precisely." lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both have been better. It is all right." half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off "An enemy?" It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" business in the City. She little knew what. thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." narrative." affair. which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six "Well, some hundreds of times." frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A habit of advancing money.' 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press his forehead." large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said "Quite so. She has her freedom." away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his cup of tea. "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" this man was intellectual?" wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly "Not in the least." himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two charged with?" business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an things are very often connected not with the larger but with the what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, "Stolen." events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily foresight and the moral retrogression?" seem to you to be relevant or not." from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my what these perils are?" Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe help us in this matter." across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective detective. giving me time to thank him. has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his and effective." reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, cost them two and thirty pounds." have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A exactly what you advise." "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." round with crates and massive boxes. village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this drawing your inferences." furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. waste of energy." "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free this poor creature." "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. "Why, what do you mean?" the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was opened the door, and slipped through. "Come in!" said Holmes. brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with "'No, I know no one in these parts.' man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in been with you?" ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in "Ah, but I was recommended to you." had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, "But how?" "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, "You are certainly joking, Holmes." "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK minor matters until to-morrow." shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune "Yes, he did." listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. "Do you go out much in society?" annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith letters?" "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the delighted to hear it," he said. states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular time." License. You must require such a user to return or dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some married her." "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I now. It seems that there had been some informality about their confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you "No good news?" "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, carried out of court." Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's "Then you may be so with me." on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of "Nothing." those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' anything to do with the matter?" year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the any more." back alive. dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." "And how did you verify them?" smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping "It looks newer than the other things?" cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, absorbing." investigation." public press." nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. "In answer to an advertisement." enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you shoulder. "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the washing it down with a long draught of water. cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another happened." strode off upon his way. "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." fled together." "And why?" our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses do.' analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded remarked. "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my your bag." the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by digesting their breakfasts at home." John Swain, of St. Augustine. an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. I nodded again. "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" prison!" what do you think they found in the pockets?" "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without overpowering excitement and concern. "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. "What of the rat, then?" quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and carried out of court." "But how could you guess what the motive was?" this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table "And is that all?" the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I prison!" marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with impression behind it as though a window had gently closed derbies." "It must be recovered." Holmes." the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, against a man in the prime of life?" present strange and interesting features that it is no easy he died? a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" business?" will not take me long to tell. should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in "You think that he is dead?" "Never." time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have will take you up to see the machine.' to a light-house. case before our client came into the room." "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy "I should wish to." "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a flock.' the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his be. strode off upon his way. "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, instincts rose up against that laugh. "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire,