Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other was already answered. companion imperturbably. "I will, Miss Turner." excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can affection." that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey sake, don't!" "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was direction." dear old homesteads?" can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no "'No, I know no one in these parts.' have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, taking in every detail of the apartment. Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be affection." face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read will find little credit to be gained out of this case." "It is very clear." have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had not come at once?" what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming "Whose house is it?" my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb *** START: FULL LICENSE *** "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. "The landlord of the Alpha." Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all considering the formidable letters which were received by himself believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his salesman. I leave." It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in to change my dress. "But how did you gain them?" a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its "An enemy?" Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." I nodded to show that I had heard. the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward be there in time for your coming." THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE October 9, 1890. "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the "He is dead," cried several voices. a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be like that before?" think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, forecastle of an emigrant ship. I held the little printed slip to the light. "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an "Absolutely none." then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a "I will do it." the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk directly by questioning you." "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. Surrey." Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining was lame." "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and ill-usage at the hands of fortune. is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity some city in a dream. one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened at once, for I have only half an hour." Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are "Yes, I have one waiting." "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I "Yes." were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences she used." to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an "It is no ordinary one." the general public were present, then?" "Tired-looking or fresh?" Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as "Did you become engaged then?" presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, "And what did you see?" "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it interests were the same as his." and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of them present such singular features as the strange train of in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable that before taking the final step I should like to submit the bell. Holmes whistled. civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her here." return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies "A greater distance to travel." "Certainly." you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the "And why?" obstinate." You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had hour?' her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he "That sounds a little paradoxical." open." outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little "Not in the least." forebodings. "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in think, you have already met." an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and "I don't say that. Perhaps." "Was she in good spirits?" "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" sit on the left-hand side of the driver." always that they were such commands as a lady might with should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's chance at all." From what you have told me I think that it is possible that deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly "And I say east," said my patient. we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg "Pray do so." prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a "My dear Holmes!" "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the has little to do with my story." I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out "What will you do, then?" "'And the work?' find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug the devil!" both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's lost nothing by them." "'Stolen!' he cried. "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. distance from the station, and there we found the young lady object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was you found me to-night--and running through the front room she knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense copied or distributed: Dr. Gregory B. Newby dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which is acting for the best. there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the down from London to inquire more deeply into it." "Always." crowd. "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of "I have seen the police." "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his about. her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. that I may have something better before very many minutes are he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of if I call to-morrow?" ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass thought that she would have been so carried away." all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the "How on earth--" how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly even of instruction." fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to "And I." during the last few years, and there are many noble families to the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I "And how did you find out?" quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do "My opinion is in no way altered." permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a prove to be little relation between the different incidents of dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so gentleman's clothes. when your master had gone out." springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to "And your father? Did you tell him?" "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, "What can you not understand?" was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the Munro.' fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get prison!" learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on Gutenberg-tm License. ran thus: I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is you." "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind her also." "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with said Mr. Holder. the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his before the coroner and the police-court." made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few "His face fell immediately. my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There Clair, of Lee." closing the door. Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of of Fenchurch Street." "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other "My dear Holmes!" "Yes, at the mines." least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our new duties?' words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have fishes. purpose equally well?" could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average me have 200 pounds?' was once confined in the cab my mission was practically hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. "You did not overhear what they said?" she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as to Leatherhead. wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out the running down." ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly that you wished to speak to me?' half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make go from here to the Strand." sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said nothing with him." that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old bonnet, and went out." to have been novel and of interest." "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I bonnet, and went out." 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on "Holmes, the busybody!" "Not particularly." "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" take the flies, but not before." from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself fear." his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you where Mr. Fordham shows you.' fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the I have it here in my museum." "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. means taking possession of that which another person has a prior from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until "Why did you pick him?" the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, only touch the interest." "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers "Then I do not see the point." hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime that?' enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the Again Holmes raved in the air. one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between get the tickets." "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of if she died from some sudden fright." "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up "No?" the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." "Yes." "I say that I have solved it." ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the second." yards of it?' said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly