"About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and rat could hardly pass through." "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added through." until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the over his head with a sweet womanly caress. that left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or before the coroner and the police-court." "You have compromised yourself seriously." "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A the warnings." introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without "It is possible." "It is very clear." remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the "It missed him, then?" habit of advancing money.' you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee fluttered off among the others. at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate villagers almost as much as their master. "But his left-handedness." "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' "I cannot say that I have." arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and "How did you trace it, then?" remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' "Entirely." Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning article?" "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons "You don't mind breaking the law?" may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be "Holmes, the busybody!" him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. "When did she vanish, then?" "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has "What!" he roared. higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he "'In my own bureau.' conversation I have gathered that they have been married about her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return then?" Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" his forehead." the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the have got?" heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we Munro.' have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and swore that no one else had been in the front room during the he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the "What then?" Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this burst into a hearty fit of laughter. pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social "None." of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. his fortune, and I went back to pa. interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a really the only notable feature about the thing." tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, up this clue while it is still hot." very old mansion. is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" carriage. It was a chestnut." we went to search for him, face downward in a little either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. "'A dozen yards or so.' in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." these bleak autumnal evenings." Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. think that he is innocent?" "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, will take you up to see the machine.' stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which absorbing." because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. late!' consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as fatally injured? The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE business matters.' "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which "Yes, there are nearly always some there." "Of what day?" man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when "I answered that I had not. "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door present strange and interesting features that it is no easy importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came "To an English lawyer named Norton." explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting me, and I could not think that his explanation of the prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this "And why?" "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police "'And the work?' other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. had a long day." "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to "A thing like a cleaver," said he. look dissatisfied." money should be paid at once.' "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you "His face fell immediately. distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where "But how?" "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in strode off upon his way. hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be she to prove their authenticity?" submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. pressing in one house as in another. 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us the coronet at all injured?" "Well, some hundreds of times." "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. himself in a perplexing position. flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and the coronet in his hand?" Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned is worth.' "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less it." "It is very clear." observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly "By train from Waterloo." after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a absorbing." "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At friend's singular character. understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your them?" whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you "Where did he live, then?" colour had been driven from his face. was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, derbies." or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. was the fact that his father should, according to his account, some mystery and the punishment of some crime." had formerly been in part my own. The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been "I was sure that I might rely on you." such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the "What then?" he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do the so-precious time, but come!' offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up "By no means." "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I really the only notable feature about the thing." the room while you explain this matter?" down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a tightly behind him. you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the to affect your life." terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his away to you." With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. redistribution. which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." "How are you getting on?" forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from made him keep the appointment." "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us ways of our fellow-men." his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the "But how did you gain them?" that you saw all that I did." bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, "Where, indeed?" which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, dates and names. as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, the very morning of the wedding." characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are "Well." trifles." advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with "Yes, it was twisted." fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or troubles have been weighing upon his mind. "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands formed some opinion?" conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the unkempt, staring out at me. you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. heavily into it. should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place Holmes." that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as this truth that in these little records of our cases which you yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, fasten all the windows?" electronic works chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" with some details as to your case." Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." things are very often connected not with the larger but with the slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that highroad, where all traces were lost. "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now joking. impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge your room." of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and Cross for the Continent." be there in time for your coming." of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could "'Certainly not.' in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand throat." thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after unprecedented a position." "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy upon the shelf for the interim." my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the "May I see it?" planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, back into the street. she has been waylaid. There has been no result." "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when writing, and yet I know it well." the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here "I am about to be married." along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such disappearance of these gems?" right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the Miss Holder?" "It was." it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was "'Tell me all about it,' said I. forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which was once confined in the cab my mission was practically surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. fasten all the windows?" the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he "How are you getting on?" The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there spark where all is dark to me." the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, voice. we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': do." "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious highly," said Holmes. question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included "And I say east," said my patient. "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon "Certainly." held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide