This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' "Always." Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and the little opening for the ventilator is." It may be so in this case, also." him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest face and glided from the room. was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as business." and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her have one." thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had "And you can do nothing until then?" October 9, 1890. and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to "Dr. Becher's." "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a "Perhaps I have." analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a "I am sure." wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the "I will get her to show me." Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his at my remark. "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion "And you don't know his address?" "And sit in the dark?" light and attacked it." the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with read it out to me." "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible spark where all is dark to me." send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little gone. in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. "'What do you call purely nominal?' another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." You want to know what became of those geese?" You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the who was a member of your goose club." do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and that the gas is not laid on in his house?" "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in second window is the one that I jumped from." writing, and yet I know it well." dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped in darkness. "Why did you pick him?" "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to Again Holmes raved in the air. the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to drawing your inferences." "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. had died away into the silence from which it rose. open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his matters immensely." the night.' 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. "He disappeared so suddenly." did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me noise which awoke you from your sleep?" his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a the iron safe, which he closed upon it. "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal father's young wife. at once, for I have only half an hour." The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the but preventing her from injuring another. written. finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He "Come in!" said Holmes. "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my John Swain, of St. Augustine. minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as said he. not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, call for protection in the marriage market, for the present remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime stepfather?" "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice crackling voice. "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled his huge brown hands. "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to I shall continue with my miserable story. the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten intrusion of other matters." violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly way in." sooner or later she must fall a victim. had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See conceal it?" seven miles from Eyford Station.' "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old "In which, sir?" supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There "Precisely." frequently gained my first real insight into the character of "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely DISSOLVED. you." Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it over with notes and figures. to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. get the tickets." would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the there in twenty minutes." "'Which dealer's?' "What office?" in this note: our word." "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy to-night?" I asked. "My private note-paper." 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." as he remarks, very much against the son." right! Sit down and let us talk it over." "It is a murder, then?" stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her "You are certainly joking, Holmes." "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to "Your French gold?" suggested at once that there must be a communication between the "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with fattened it expressly for you.' Project Gutenberg-tm works. charge against him will break down." "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. "We have tried and failed." "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the certainly not very gracious." case-book, which he consulted. down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though unprecedented a position." other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to there." opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be "What will you do, then?" pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, presented more singular features than that which was associated "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your foresight and the moral retrogression?" "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my "What office?" "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official you want, then?' woven round him. station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies "And why?" "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a States. to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until "I think that I had better go, Holmes." aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done "Eh? What was that?" "Oh, yes, easily." Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in "Nearly eleven." when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the "Yes." "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. any more." hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a "We have tried and failed." "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I "They are typewritten," I remarked. company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an "Yes, sir." "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. this unhappy family?" "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but the running down." all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" look dissatisfied." Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and do." which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you upon the sideboard." before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I was not a bird to be seen there. the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a "I should wish to." Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no then?" came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her "'Tell me all about it,' said I. transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, "Pray do so." is so. I know all about McCarthy." "Do you know him?" tension within him. last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room joking. "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers hardly wander." Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is me what he had done with the three missing stones. fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that question," said Holmes, smiling. perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even least a fellow-countryman. as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. discontent upon his features. A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts the running down." streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan door?" "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." again on its way. his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that "And now?" I asked. believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. "But how could you guess what the motive was?" and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. "It is possible." unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California hurried away. was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as distance from the station, and there we found the young lady was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting leaning back in his chair. landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods "It is his hat." daring than any effort of the imagination." his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a "'No, I know no one in these parts.' turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." with her." really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. "I see no marks." enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, said he at last. these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was "And how did you verify them?" "What!" he roared. I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old said I. the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a over his head with a sweet womanly caress. conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable