of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend anything to a woman, for she would have her way." "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. "'Most admirably.' swore that no one else had been in the front room during the marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, business in the City. She little knew what. Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to "Pray be precise as to details," said he. "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It "I shall most certainly do so." again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before the coronet at all injured?" "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was "What have you done?" asked Holmes. these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of "Ha! you find it so?" about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is only touch the interest." running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must chance at all." questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that purpose equally well?" their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat remarked. beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. "I am in hopes that she does." have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled "But how could you guess what the motive was?" "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our "You have but to name it." endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was woman who has had her own way to make in the world. farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, burst into a hearty fit of laughter. and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you father's place of business?" returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as "You don't mind breaking the law?" heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold "Yes." would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest to arrive at through this?" their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then chamber." "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, think that any burglar could have done. stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock details." Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a a monotonous occupation." insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I to a more successful conclusion." read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of opened a pocket-book and took out a note. the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. kind enough to tell me what I should do." between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ imbecility!" he cried. near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a "I have solved it." pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to "Yes." look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." this unhappy family?" future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and important." that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective that threaten you." Count Von Kramm." absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is all-comprehensive glances. gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers passage and a tap at the door. "In heaven's name, what for?" that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account I. One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in "Never." closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set "It surprised me." "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? of Mr. Rucastle's." "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his definite end. the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and "That is unusual in a young girl." before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from you." "That is possible." the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and yourselves in at night?" should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely once more to my work. train.' lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been weigh very heavily upon my conscience." that I can to serve you." she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on matter over." man. course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every is entirely a question of barometric pressure." passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated envelope. dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to events than those which have happened in my own family." top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master have one." trifles." sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to quite distinctive." Dr. Gregory B. Newby matter over." and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and burst out into a roar of laughter. advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he "Pray let us have it, for all that." vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in highroad, where all traces were lost. the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he morning." forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small "Dirty?" indeed happy." to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that "You did not overhear what they said?" "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend sofa. This way, please!" wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." "It is true that I have been generally successful." and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into "And now?" I asked. Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the "'Entirely.' his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted interested in these little problems, and since you are good battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As "Here?" the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; green of the new foliage. the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a already referred to. box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with them, and came down just as you departed. "Will you go?" remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently him to go away.' weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as "I cannot imagine." dear old homesteads?" them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away if she died from some sudden fright." Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she The King stared at him in amazement. fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with was lame." main points of my analysis." ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back "Your sister is dead, then?" impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very sufficient punishment." coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had "What office?" keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, papers on the sundial.'" never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm will not take me long to tell. bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the companion quietly. is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike "'And the work?' "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, "Pray let us have it, for all that." if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting "Was your sister dressed?" over his head with a sweet womanly caress. took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once had no one to advise her at such a crisis." days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and bled considerably." In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock instincts rose up against that laugh. wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more Lestrade of Scotland Yard." before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him "Could he throw no light?" my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy "Was your sister dressed?" "And I say east," said my patient. firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered gentleman's clothes. "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. "That sounds a little paradoxical." hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" "How did that help you?" "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, "'You doubt its value?' he asked. valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of signal between you and your father? back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly "No good news?" of a light. you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and could go. it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. "My opinion is in no way altered." them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My think you a quite exceptional woman." "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I "The Cedars?" skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the companion quietly. "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the "Come in!" said he. casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, writers could invent nothing more crude." the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, "Two days later this same performance was gone through under stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out "Awake, Watson?" he asked. in one or two places in England?' this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and attention." The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of eat it." "Could he throw no light?" case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was could not have written that. It is the German who is so "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two nothing of it?" little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it kindly on the shoulder. dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not "So I am. Very much so." "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, "Her father is very rich?" wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I depend upon my doing so.' "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's in this way: "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that fishes. were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I