really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept considering the formidable letters which were received by himself swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of Holmes' thin, eager face. instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your back alive. "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but directors have had misgivings upon the subject." grasp, he hurried from the room. unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so that he has suffered." think that any burglar could have done. case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are "BALLARAT." astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. whatever might befall. remarked. smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. way in everything. I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." "My dear Holmes!" "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if "Then I can wait in the next room." furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of "It looks newer than the other things?" "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." "It must be recovered." highroad, where all traces were lost. which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. persecution?" narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. quick march!" minor matters until to-morrow." quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by "That also I could fathom." slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, about. "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan train from Paddington which would bring you there at about off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in second window is the one that I jumped from." interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which "But the mystery?" contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. hair?' better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem "He disappeared so suddenly." inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." be sorry for having acted so harshly." and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered not personally threatened." annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My when your master had gone out." instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he congenial hunt. delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient "'A dozen yards or so.' "Really! You surprise me." that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. and a shock of very red hair. have one." have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day "The Coroner: What do you mean? uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you charged with?" to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a of your young ladies.' analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish "And how did you verify them?" rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very have one." presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been train.' for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all recall any case within my experience which looked at the first human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between that, and I came down." A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." fait accompli?" business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, "Dirty?" inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can "My dear Holmes!" and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am that he has suffered." aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. the child." But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There asked. the devil!" "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William prisoner's face. unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. plantation.' of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an "It was." tell him that I know him to be innocent." "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately about. turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried jewels which you have stolen?' the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" in your London, you will know that the office of the company is pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite opened the door, and slipped through. accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the Pope's Court. William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, in this way: he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" "But to whom?" looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as me what he had done with the three missing stones. despair." should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." cigar and let me expound." The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been "It is his hat." you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he certainly do as you advise." takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his what is your own theory as to what took place?" opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small affection." "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. noting anything else of interest. it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in chamber." when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and your room." "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had into her hand at the door and which lured her within their who was a member of your goose club." this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. mystery may be cleared along those lines." desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent entirely lost his self-respect." a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in standing smiling on the door-step. "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." there has been an enclosure here!" from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom "Yes." out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. "And how have you succeeded?" Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke front of the hall door has given its name to the place. accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. "Was he the only applicant?" fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. again, where I was soon asleep. brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the bed dies. Does not that strike you?" formed some opinion?" "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal arms and began to sob in a high treble key. "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." "Why? What do you mean?" "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." "'Certainly not. But why?' electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I the house with me." and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which which it had come upon my father." "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle seen the man in the road." prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the where she found matters as described by the last witness. tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if neither fascinating nor artistic." It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him strode off upon his way. his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently "Did he not advertise?" He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." formed some opinion?" "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after "But what will you do?" himself to hunt down. Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was "That's no good." row." "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his eavesdroppers?' "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in leaning back in his chair. followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical drawing your inferences." conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better hurried away. "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming the dangers which encompass me." lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so "Do you know him?" I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his trifles." never came back." money should be paid at once.' attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, just ask you whether you had heard it.' "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of "I have come for advice." simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which ordinary clothes on?" "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the characteristics, but those are the more obvious." shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and that you can jump it.' "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every careless servant girl?" agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with "BALLARAT." "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater dramatic, in fact." absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was hair?' "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" "On Monday." be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I frequently gained my first real insight into the character of look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but geese which you supplied to the Alpha." after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had "And how did he make his money?" when your master had gone out." reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; be. "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The confronted him. and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and has little to do with my story." wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their forebodings. "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a drove away. "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, you?' "Awake, Watson?" he asked. was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his article?" Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily the inner apartment." "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have tell him that I know him to be innocent." thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a ran thus: cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not "But you have hopes?" golden eyeglasses. 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." Again Holmes raved in the air. gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table.