"Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get have accepted such a situation. "One of the highest in England." Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, "Yes, at the mines." the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I "It came here." "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he "'What are you doing there?' he asked. "It certainly sounds feasible." the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss "The murder was done with it." "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened "And I to find an enemy." ill-usage at the hands of fortune. my room." "Was he the only applicant?" business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many least a fellow-countryman. the so-precious time, but come!' rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the lost his Christmas dinner." to affect your life." had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to not within a twentieth part of the market price." "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town most interesting one." my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and other means.' "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. conclusions. "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" trying to your nerves." crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him charged with?" dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door "'Where to?' open." furiously. "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." "It is possible." "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, easy-going way." "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, about here speaks of his kindness to him." such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something "Yes, he did." pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, silent! Oh, he will be silent!' pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen "'What, the red-headed man?' Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew information in his hands the value of which he did not himself from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had "I think that it is very probable." "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and from the brougham. happened." "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, there!' hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the "Yes, that is the Crown." "What I expected to see." "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the instincts rose up against that laugh. "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a "Stolen." rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he the salesman. homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take "We were both in the photograph." has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do window when the police appeared." at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a tension within him. expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect take the flies, but not before." business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. depend upon my doing so.' "Pray do so." the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it "Yes." investigation." "I have my revolver," said I. "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated "It was." brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't electronic works or other trace. But how on earth--" dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very would then never go into court at all." where she found matters as described by the last witness. wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his observed. which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made look dissatisfied." the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce nonsense.' an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" "But you would not advise me to refuse?" lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance once more for Briony Lodge. and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped "Yesterday." Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their recover the gem." dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, what is your own theory as to what took place?" to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding as this. Pray let me have the details." "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One "Yes." princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' few hundred pounds.' is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: back to my heart. "My stepfather's business papers." "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you here." find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. "What will you say?" the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My "I was afraid that you were engaged." old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And other lovers by making love himself." "And Irene Adler?" rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began "You have it, sir, just as it happened." possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to Street. my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded "This concluded the examination of the witness." fish-monger and a tide-waiter." observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So to a light-house. guilty parties." "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating colonel looking down at me. specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, it means?" Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such "What!" he roared. willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' door?" until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel *** START: FULL LICENSE *** he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my to tackle the facts." before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the "10th. John Swain cleared. had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he unclasping of his long thin hands. to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" and the whole place is in a blaze." served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of any little problem which you may submit to me." "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that better in every way that they should make their position a little "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I occurred." the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, Again Holmes raved in the air. that threaten you." about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite sit on the left-hand side of the driver." "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there meant." round with crates and massive boxes. until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man "I will try. What is it?" question you as to those details which seem to me to be most "It missed him, then?" "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who noble correspondent could be. her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side some city in a dream. found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included "And Miss Sutherland?" unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal "When did she vanish, then?" was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after "It surprised me." Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, their singular warning or token before them when starting upon other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon followed. woven round him. round and wave him away like that.' same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. posted to-day." "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, "Yes." weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and hands. Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over whether it answered to the description of any of their Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or question. "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and "And how did you verify them?" "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if persecution?" Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a "At what time?" my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a results." in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its the room while you explain this matter?" have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the present." helping a boy to put up the shutters. Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the "No, but the enclosure is." dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he to tackle the facts." "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and you." "You have but to name it." engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you The note was undated, and without either signature or address. "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." "A thing like a cleaver," said he. "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your village inn over there?" "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, works. more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. of it with the greatest attention. "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his "You saw the ventilator, too?" dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a your Highness to the police-station?" appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in to-night?" I asked. "Why, what do you mean?" It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, paper in the air. wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand conceal it?" "Never." read over the extraordinary announcement. "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his "Thank you. Pray proceed." he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. subject to the trademark license, especially commercial this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. people in all walks of life. work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at he bowed and left the room without another word. satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. "I have seen the police." seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I "That was it, sir." gives a meaning to it." solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take to his chemical studies. in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" of his shoulders. against a man in the prime of life?" Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together and I shall be with you presently." voice, changing her seat as requested. a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that "Pray let us have it, for all that." touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in "He said that you could solve anything." you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations wife's character?" tassel actually lying upon the pillow. the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is to have been novel and of interest." starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there