depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such means taking possession of that which another person has a prior a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was events than those which have happened in my own family." detective. "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the "I was certainly surprised to find you there." must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would both be extremely obliged.' was feeling which was the fattest.' whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its before the coroner and the police-court." all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, "A greater distance to travel." Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and "Yes." carried out of court." case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On depend upon your compliance." horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and http://www.gutenberg.net doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It "But how?" "Tired-looking or fresh?" ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" "It looks newer than the other things?" "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was "Who by?" Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt Count Von Kramm." chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But "I think it very unlikely." Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide "It was." lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to "My dear Holmes!" "'And what salary do you ask?' He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with his cane at the bell-pull. "Texas, I think." complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the carried out of court." very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was guilty parties." it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. "I am about to be married." Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been coat-tails." enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little country, and eventually married, without anyone having a and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than simple cases which are so extremely difficult." "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." he bowed and left the room without another word. "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is if only as a check to my own memory." my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four empty. "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. key of the affair now." looking up at the numbers of the houses." his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's a little more before I quite committed myself. lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you look dissatisfied." instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the lamp in his hand. had picked up in the wood. discontent upon his features. drove away. trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, father's place of business?" residence of the great financier. "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his and inquire as to the address." digesting their breakfasts at home." trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, union?" He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his washing it down with a long draught of water. forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you "That is not always so easy." him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am "I shall most certainly do so." Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own "Of what?" that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My "I am armed." "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I you." her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need one which it was hard to resist. was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind "No." have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that up this clue while it is still hot." fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east "What do you make of that, Watson?" feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner just ask you whether you had heard it.' Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments nonsense.' "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was ceremony." I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself you." England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and vanished into the darkness. we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper extraordinary contortions. the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a foot. she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other friends, not even his own brother. Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His "What will you say?" it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was "Was she in good spirits?" investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which asked with his eyes open. companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to charged with?" work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to of the one which your family is now devouring." - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do country, and eventually married, without anyone having a or in danger--" remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." His smile broadened. surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" did not hear it also.' dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between "Yes." "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to "'And what are they worth?' I asked. dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, "Yes." gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who "Why? What do you mean?" "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which You want to know what became of those geese?" peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was "How long did she speak to this Alice?" so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from "Murdered?" Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." introspective fashion. "What is it, then--a fire?" common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But stammered. but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On is a common subject for conversation. there has been an enclosure here!" value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was definite end. down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the hand, madam?" presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for "That was it, sir." his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. States. past. Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he official police." and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me "'Is 4 pounds a week.' red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project Countess of Morcar's?" dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, things are very often connected not with the larger but with the "Pray continue your narrative." at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you burst into a hearty fit of laughter. "Well, some hundreds of times." little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his ceremony." Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at make me his representative both with the servants and with the chill to my heart. "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in "Of what?" evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the shall use the carriage to-night." small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously "At half-wages, in fact." firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a man. "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to believe that I should never have any practice at all. do." red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" do you make of it all?" the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that "What can you not understand?" There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector "Was he the only applicant?" highly," said Holmes. As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." hour." "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." long narrative. who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project colonel looking down at me. electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." newspaper selections." you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, head. So long, then!" "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out "Of Friday, June 19th." was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of "A thing like a cleaver," said he. stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." God! What an exposure! What can I do?" "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the one else, I think." problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was the Assizes." to-night?" I asked. contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. "Then I do not see the point." "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his whole matter to your consideration." "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to province." them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very once more on the important position which you have been fortunate imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this to tell." was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing "Were they all fastened this morning?" jewels which you have stolen?' "Murdered?" remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. of this gang." "'I am sure if I had known--' "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with to talk it over. He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in gone. tassel actually lying upon the pillow. five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get all that?" "'Is 4 pounds a week.' given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to as noiselessly as she had come. "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a "10th. John Swain cleared. the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just forebodings. aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly again before evening." Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally