collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is "What shall I do?" safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' sound at heart." cause to be." sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I trifles." him!" in this way: I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about "Were they all fastened this morning?" "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next society." "'It is locked up,' I answered. whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices this truth that in these little records of our cases which you place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by here and I will read it to you: "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He business at Coburg Square is serious." flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." fasten all the windows?" "He is still with you, I presume?" return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was weighed down with some great anxiety. nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling "I should like to see him very much." letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I "'Tell me all about it,' said I. "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter fire. You quite follow me?" this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of place no limit on the sum I may draw." As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still depend upon your compliance." and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. "A confidential servant?" putting in the horse. when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than "Oh, the cause is excellent!" "You saw the ventilator, too?" dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward "That was it, sir." "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have astonishment. "My stepfather's business papers." "Seven!" I answered. has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he the nursery. one else, I think." "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were "Absolutely?" faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some call you and give you the chance." town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the place, I think that there is good ground to think that the have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, exactly what you advise." secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little Does that suggest anything?" power." some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, it. forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It sneer upon his pale face. "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at "Then I can wait in the next room." "'Certainly not. But why?' sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a geese which you supplied to the Alpha." aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of "I will, Miss Turner." size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." the coronet in his hand?" a little more before I quite committed myself. not personally threatened." Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, one which it was hard to resist. my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an "On your arm?" return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the when you have done it." will take you up to see the machine.' brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you and the colonel ushered me in. learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to child?' Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs "Very truly yours, labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was drawing your inferences." "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the "9th. McCauley cleared. were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the I have it here in my museum." "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. "I know where it is." married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not written. between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary "None." "What can it mean?" I gasped. with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had to his chemical studies. "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the ourselves in the office." "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his one of the states of the Union." lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. it were putty." "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads this as likely?" "Murdered?" "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found likely to be some crony of the landlady's." cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again call for it in person on Monday morning.' erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. the station." Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely better in every way that they should make their position a little loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure "Awake, Watson?" he asked. "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, I nodded again. overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a the little opening for the ventilator is." at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. vault. coat-tails." my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were "No." is entirely a question of barometric pressure." graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family easy-going way." his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. about here speaks of his kindness to him." The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the "My photograph." the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom matter over." In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not in this way: against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally From what you have told me I think that it is possible that "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting gbnewby@pglaf.org "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a papers on the sundial.'" suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very believe that I should never have any practice at all. particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." "And is that all?" "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to III. patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, we went to search for him, face downward in a little girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the yet." think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon "Yes, it would be as well." "To ruin me." hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, easy-going way." may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes "Entirely." inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric "'Very good.' I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our "May I see it?" and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind bird of prey. course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a not interfere, come what may. You understand?" "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both conduct the inquiry." "Who was the criminal, then?" entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer side. do you make of it all?" clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I enough to aid us in our search." heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two of a light. his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he "I was afraid that you were engaged." key of the affair now." would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard it." "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would along the entire front of the house, with three long windows "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no nights." II. horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, the armchair which I pushed forward for him. air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I fishes. there were one or two details which were new to me. But the though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at the King without delay." down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most "Certainly." Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, residence of the great financier. his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" "Absolutely none." often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to "Yes, it would be as well." "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but nights." "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief some water from a caraffe. to a light-house. fire. You quite follow me?" although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was simple cases which are so extremely difficult." of the way of danger. over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is results." "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are "You think that he is dead?" "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage imbecility!" he cried. Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to "Stoke Moran?" said he. and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, "You think so, too?" complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out weigh very heavily upon my conscience." see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in But Holmes shook his head gravely. Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. room?" A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." "You were travelling in the States?" grasp, he hurried from the room. to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, "But his left-handedness." opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the "I see many objections to any such theory." time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge anything to a woman, for she would have her way." black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not think, you have already met." agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety so far?" in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now of your young ladies.' left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but experiences." to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding remarked. "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You conversation I have gathered that they have been married about The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his good-night and bustled off upon her way. door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to me what he had done with the three missing stones. gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his "Oh, the cause is excellent!" tassel actually lying upon the pillow. blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, kindly on the shoulder. me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his fire. You quite follow me?" struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes "Where is it, then?" gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not gone. and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. disappearance of these gems?" that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this Countess of Morcar's?" eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." bears upon the case?" Where does the thing come from?' opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is "I warn you that they are very incomplete." sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the is four-and-twenty." "I saw her in conversation with her maid."