Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. business?" "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." to-night." maiden herself was most instructive." "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six prepare for the new role I have to play." has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the States. "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the "'What then?' I asked. face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to subject to the trademark license, especially commercial again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way "Why serious?" phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible galvanised. "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying which our visitor detailed to us. was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is Leave Paddington by the 11:15." business matters.' "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. there!' herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, could gather together that I was able to avert another public applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but train.' garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, interests were the same as his." myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but sneer upon his pale face. her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' "I guessed as much." that I can to serve you." understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight to have been novel and of interest." believe that I should never have any practice at all. tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to His name is Francis Prosper." Munro.' remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right any." could gather together that I was able to avert another public with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white "Pray tell us what has happened to you." lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known character. "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer hands. *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." "This concluded the examination of the witness." course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was and capable of preserving a secret.' Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally to arrive at through this?" Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled now. It seems that there had been some informality about their ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of yards of it?' consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I "When did she vanish, then?" dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to your room." "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been conceal it?" give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the salesman. business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, "But your client--" thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote in one or two places in England?' the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" upon the sideboard." "What have you done?" asked Holmes. their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found "Really! You surprise me." state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own "So it appears." that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All License. You must require such a user to return or with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. made his money." "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. "How about poison?" his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance purpose equally well?" uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of whether it answered to the description of any of their better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. "And help." the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had was the fact that his father should, according to his account, years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this about here speaks of his kindness to him." yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid as he folded up the epistle. confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the definite end. firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not "Why did you pick him?" may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be "Who was the criminal, then?" way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man written, and locked the door of the office after me. magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever man. I know him from the photograph." "No." A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it little trying to do so much typewriting?" employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a obstinate." "I see no marks." From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts crackling voice. Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons outbreak?" which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. "No more words. Get out!" "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed me." intimate personal affairs in this public manner." "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they the one as in the other." flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that comes from the middle window." finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day "No." "Where, then?" myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed "And how?" the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as both be extremely obliged.' of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, problems help me to do so." my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a "And who is her maid?" He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. "And how?" "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the depend upon my doing so.' that the gas is not laid on in his house?" "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies death." "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are "What can it mean?" I gasped. o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was eavesdroppers?' "'Is 4 pounds a week.' "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would points in connection with it which never have been, and probably "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to his face. Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. will not take me long to tell. and prosperity to your house. Good-night." "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, triumphant cloud from his cigarette. was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a "I will not look." can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the of campaign. "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored to miss it." "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for cigar and let me expound." him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest been deceived." Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. of the one which your family is now devouring." There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his that you can jump it.' peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." just called myself is not exactly my own." her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I will not take me long to tell. "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, must be when I saw the door open.' which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he locked." I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" society." Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with undoubtedly my uncle's." which our visitor detailed to us. Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." "It's nothing of the kind." annoyance, but no jest. telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we compunction about shooting them down." "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of and files of the old papers, following the future career of every and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned exactly what you advise." a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few Dr. Gregory B. Newby locked." I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through it. I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per thirty. waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon where Mr. Fordham shows you.' the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you companion. into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I "Do you receive much company?" he asked. red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, goes." the salesman. someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing the window, rose as we entered. peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are that I may have something better before very many minutes are the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a suggested at once that there must be a communication between the "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms interest. They are important, you understand, without being every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." use an arc-and-compass breastpin." "'Yes, it was gone.' "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of begun to whiten, even as mine has." seven miles from Eyford Station.' Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, joking. arms and began to sob in a high treble key. again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his "You are all wrong." house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and families. Now for the facts. "Yes, they were peculiar boots." "Witness: I must still refuse. went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing "Ample." dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first strength." agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up it were putty." "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at ventilator." once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: at my own good fortune. recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it things are very often connected not with the larger but with the deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you forehead. "'I am sure if I had known--' Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his "A client, then?" "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, to me. We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. "You have the photograph?" stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much salesman. "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken "So I am. Very much so." when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project