then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. call it cruel." Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I will take you up to see the machine.' case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel asked. fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' "Precisely so. But how--" "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst conclusions. "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in was keenly on my guard against him. bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm "No good news?" points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with confronted him. "It is half-past ten now." this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods "'Is 4 pounds a week.' even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very bedroom door." figure." villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and place, I think that there is good ground to think that the when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs "But she could not love him." "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which returned to France?" all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I likely to be some crony of the landlady's." works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged "She walked into the breakfast-room." on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some "No more words. Get out!" is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. of campaign. would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of you want, then?' "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your "Not I." chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he as this. Pray let me have the details." society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and simple cases which are so extremely difficult." simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which there!' "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead quickly through a disagreeable task. "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house "Yes, only one." "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." trying to your nerves." "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot go back?" strength of mind to control. he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in nonsense.' crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended pierced for earrings?" after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. like gravel from a pit.' lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. The note was undated, and without either signature or address. strode off upon his way. is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange envelope. But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the "Ha! you find it so?" "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better "Perhaps we may make them less so." those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they had formerly been in part my own. this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond knowledge of the world." better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots that trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way see me here to avoid scandal." "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were "'It is locked up,' I answered. "How often?" exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking "Tired-looking or fresh?" son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very before the coroner and the police-court." "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the "It surprised me." a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of "Oh, fresh and glossy." fasten all the windows?" When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and straighten it?" scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and the station." concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared kind enough to tell me what I should do." after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, but preventing her from injuring another. "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do "'Yes, it was gone.' analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little James Windibank. Voilà tout!" shoulder. astonishment. "No good news?" frequently gained my first real insight into the character of rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a that the gas is not laid on in his house?" street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." I leave." what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains woman who has had her own way to make in the world. "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a and prosperity to your house. Good-night." appeal." "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem I have it here in my museum." the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am had no one to advise her at such a crisis." another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able "Then how many are there?" "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at "'Is 4 pounds a week.' tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking "'Then let me do so?' "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I a room. evidence," I remarked. Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of right! Sit down and let us talk it over." his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day heavily into it. again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE "Not particularly." examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards affection." This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently instituted." arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the thought that she would have been so carried away." to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to results." held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than ways of our fellow-men." headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham What do you deduce from it?" "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most "My photograph." became a certainty. "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here the matter." "Indeed! Whose, then?" Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon before the coroner and the police-court." something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." any." the very letters. But what is this written above them?' beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and gentleman's clothes. fire. You quite follow me?" "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler "None." passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation you came in." fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he "What! a murderous attack?" help us in this matter." us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a Holmes. been shamefully used." are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical present strange and interesting features that it is no easy member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after again, where I was soon asleep. rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." murdered man." suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely system of imprisonment?" low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has night.' said he. better grown goose." shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' into the bag, and made for the door. pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were "I saw her in conversation with her maid." has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a "'Yes, sir.' "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I "'I am sure that I do not know.' "Then I am your man." "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but congenial hunt. "It looks newer than the other things?" "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, most important business. It is probable that he will be away all on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to never came back." encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so are, I think, all that we need." and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to arrangements." a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have "Pray continue your narrative." "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. "Nearly eleven." "Have you it here?" freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that "None." and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a so.' it." "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can I nodded again. but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." think, you have already met." "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but the matter." "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no door?" "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, horse could go." round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you waste of energy." "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All "Her father is very rich?" the inquest, and which are worth considering." I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit murdered man." Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must that, and I came down." deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself the nursery. "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it Eyford at 11:15.' whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about fat-encircled eyes. elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in and glanced through. Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare "Proceed, then." be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at when your master had gone out." disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears in. already referred to. locked." latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and said he, "my real name is James Ryder." lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, and effective." The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have