"Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from rose-bushes. thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" "I will not look." however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, "Yes, there are nearly always some there." house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with "'A dozen yards or so.' PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it at home. pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it "Yes." had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a happened." that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite Munro.' A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local Sutherland. your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should where we are going." said he. while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of "I don't believe it." "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and depend upon my doing so.' "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness "How are you getting on?" upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking "But she will refuse." And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would what is your own theory as to what took place?" London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and will he say when he returns?" practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little a room. We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated chemical work which was so dear to him. weary and pale-looking. Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and "What is it, then--a fire?" the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That tell him that I know him to be innocent." "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them and that he would see to anything that turned up. saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and during the last few years, and there are many noble families to cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There of." could not have written that. It is the German who is so extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to "Yes, there are nearly always some there." Holmes' thin, eager face. that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a go from here to the Strand." handed it to him. "'Yes, it was gone.' "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here away in different directions, and I went off to make my own "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to "The best possible." is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough over his head with a sweet womanly caress. had a long day." "'Tell me all about it,' said I. was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit I nodded to show that I had heard. "Imitated." held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and writer." to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for "One horse?" interjected Holmes. as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I followed. steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his anything to a woman, for she would have her way." like that before?" "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the off." over part of the map. "What do you read?" prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I "'Certainly not.' saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, morning." not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. showing my impatience. Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy "Oh, fresh and glossy." from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be will be renamed. himself to tell his story. "I beg pardon." "You have carte blanche." "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I "At half-wages, in fact." journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows letters?" "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, occurred." which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. stepfather?" never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up so far?" characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, me." moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. and looked back. you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too than to us. almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any in darkness. dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You "My opinion is in no way altered." had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a undoubtedly my uncle's." unprofitable." absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely a few minutes he said that it would be all right. himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able most important business. It is probable that he will be away all this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any From what you have told me I think that it is possible that surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you "And how?" It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his II. rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had "He might." "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." American. Then who could this American be, and why should he retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his "What!" he roared. was a lad." "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not "Perfectly so." were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. coat-tails." "'Not at all. I only doubt--' as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been "Nothing?" I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert fashion which was peculiar to him. on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the himself. and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the paper in the air. The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. it with his own hands." "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' him to be an active member of the medical profession." very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the "But I have heard all that you have heard." after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I "I will not look." way in." through." enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young "When did it break out?" Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure which are rolled in Rotterdam." quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little fattened it expressly for you.' Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is companion. "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. that you can jump it.' answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do October 9, 1890. downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start "She will not sell." "That is it on the dressing-table." your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the "But what will you do?" Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. know that the truth is known." partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. soul! here is her carriage at the door." "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned where Mr. Fordham shows you.' of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must "I cannot think." explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your other lovers by making love himself." in this note: excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself "Not him." once more to my work. however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" "Thank you. And your address?" every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily "Where did you address your letters, then?" to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. should be so warm over such a trifle." "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming to that open window." "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he correct than the official force." than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your "Yes?" "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." grasp, he hurried from the room. purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before true." his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. anything to do with the matter?" "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." "My stepfather's business papers." why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well criminal. We have already had experience of such." "What of the rat, then?" delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. opened a pocket-book and took out a note. was feeling which was the fattest.' wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he bears upon the case?" offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who "In which, sir?" without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all Young McCarthy must be got off, however." building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety upon a handsome competence. here." country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being bonnet, and went out." "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house tear off another piece?' along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the shoulder. he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came The events in question occurred in the early days of my brandy and water within his reach. when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now "I was afraid that you were engaged." for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. shaken than I had ever seen him. "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting "Dark enough and sinister enough." that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then "What?" side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure "But how?" his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. you?" what do you think they found in the pockets?" shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the "But what harm can there be in that?" "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will shag which I had seen upon the previous night. memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of tassel actually lying upon the pillow. his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. possible that we could bring him back to her? "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." it." for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little