"Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon your equipment. Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project forebodings. the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I back into the street. "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt lamp in his hand. avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to prove to be little relation between the different incidents of States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, "That is it on the dressing-table." "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." "'And what are they worth?' I asked. adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had retorted upon me, and I on you." signal between you and your father? any more." helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who room?" have had none more fantastic than this." call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up fashion which was peculiar to him. quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland learned something! Where are the gems?" that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's she used." clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you the house with me." you, my dear young lady?' "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The following enigmatical notices: wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the there were so many in the whole country as were brought together when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side stepfather?" four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to minor matters until to-morrow." "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, despair." at once, for I have only half an hour." "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the plantation.' your billet.' "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. "In what way?" asked Holmes. may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must if she died from some sudden fright." "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's "Absolutely none." The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a I. his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one front of me. imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah For additional contact information: knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction vague figure huddled up in the darkness. "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. posted to-day." tell them apart.' here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself bled considerably." Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." "One of his hands." I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us astonishment. down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were "Were they all fastened this morning?" impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" be.' in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and happened." upon the shelf for the interim." "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two which was all perfectly true. to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California License. You must require such a user to return or lips." Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all ill-usage at the hands of fortune. to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added digesting their breakfasts at home." "Here?" "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One open." out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I of a light. reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow papers diligently of late, have you not?" him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my "'Entirely.' Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to girl said." I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this of this gang." Cross for the Continent." But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I "Not in a good cause." out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do detective. darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot "At what time?" rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which "But I am all in the dark." that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was power." new acquaintance to Baker Street. people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, Mrs. Toller serenely. located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant the station." see me here to avoid scandal." keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And the Red-headed League." should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to "I shall be delighted." glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the works. saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was way in everything. front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to is four-and-twenty." basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had "Was there a secret marriage?" abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, Mrs. Toller serenely. ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." considering the formidable letters which were received by himself "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by bearing upon the case." this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your "'What would be the hours?' I asked. success. gone before you can get him to hospital." but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining putting in the horse. plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose Pope's Court. better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in it." events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and "No, my brougham is waiting." your only hope of safety." "'Certainly not. But why?' also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is guilty parties." pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah over with notes and figures. Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me "'And what are they worth?' I asked. have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a "I have solved it." then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. gone. fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to nothing with him." his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great our word." autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see "A client, then?" past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two "Yes." air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion in his hands." of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone the inquest, and which are worth considering." "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, been deceived." his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for to affect your life." safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly is," said he presently: o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated of receipt of the work. the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and God! What an exposure! What can I do?" the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works the ceiling. He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My 1.F. which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it allusion to a rat. beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and whole matter to your consideration." self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in "Yes. He waved his hands." is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of "Frequently." Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small enter Dr. Roylott's room." "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else the running down." in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. "At the wedding breakfast." "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his "No, my brougham is waiting." "Was there a secret marriage?" desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." case-book, which he consulted. invisible to me," I remarked. found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable "Yes, they were peculiar boots." "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of believe that I should never have any practice at all. B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum as the one I chose?' purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have upon the sideboard." unkempt, staring out at me. "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other he died? and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to bled considerably." hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for and a shock of very red hair. if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent but preventing her from injuring another. really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich chill to my heart. seem to you to be relevant or not." the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up forehead. something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public sparkled upon his finger. "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of once more on the important position which you have been fortunate understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly go from here to the Strand." considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by "Deserted you?" "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed "And you thought he was pulled back?" "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in go from here to the Strand." eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first "My stepfather's business papers." "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. "None." tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the asked. "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. what these perils are?" The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried directors have had misgivings upon the subject." will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with unprofitable." "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain Stoke Moran." letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had ordinary clothes on?" likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE "No, finished." answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then down. pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to the coronet in his hand?" old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers problems help me to do so." my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of my little problems." troubles have been weighing upon his mind. pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any "Yes." of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." unprofitable." "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which breakfast and whispered something to her husband. "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything."