but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door highroad, where all traces were lost. "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in been with you?" "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with letters?" position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House said I. "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I upon the sideboard." The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had me. You must get home instantly and act." "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, "Will you bet, then?" "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to ways including including checks, online payments and credit card cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" these bleak autumnal evenings." stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a ways including including checks, online payments and credit card the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in disappearance of the bride.'" note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he to-night." "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were went to the Alpha were town bred." walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of laugh and put his lips to my ear. elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family so.' With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as "'Certainly,' I answered. Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. "Has he come with you to-night?" lamp in his hand. seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute "I cannot think." of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached already referred to. of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had as yours." month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" Street. at my own good fortune. I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of foot. will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay hair?' a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever "What I expected to see." "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a tell him that I know him to be innocent." allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left During two years I have had three consultations and one small when you have done it." rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the swore that no one else had been in the front room during the "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that already been minutely examined." her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. present strange and interesting features that it is no easy "Was the window open?" "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn when your master had gone out." enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." frequently gained my first real insight into the character of wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, "Deserted you?" "Yes." classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client place no limit on the sum I may draw." eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to such person." something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to them?" "'What are you doing there?' he asked. I shall continue with my miserable story. "He is still with you, I presume?" London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was coat-tails." road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his "Yes, I have one waiting." goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." of them has the shutters up.' than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, closely." "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my it means?" trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been maiden herself was most instructive." not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' about. which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up "No sign of it?" of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. "I have my revolver," said I. to arrive at through this?" "The knees of his trousers." and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, Project Gutenberg-tm works. skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, "It certainly sounds feasible." to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. laugh and put his lips to my ear. The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the "My dear Holmes!" orange pips. "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, "Yes." but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the through." "Pray let us have it, for all that." key turn in the lock." "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" "It came here." towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and hard-headed British jury." to me. has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be a room. Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new "I do." better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm there were so many in the whole country as were brought together band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, to his chemical studies. if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of "It may not come to that," said Holmes. into the bag, and made for the door. adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the appeared upon the scene." as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was observed. the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, "He is still with you, I presume?" bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight But Holmes shook his head gravely. streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies me. "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two shaken than I had ever seen him. after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will mystery!" dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, there." "I see many objections to any such theory." 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual are, I think, all that we need." room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" spark where all is dark to me." prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my "But the mystery?" as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't as the one I chose?' outside." "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in presented which may be striking and bizarre without being "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. help us in this matter." standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I examine." yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. charge against him will break down." used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who help us in this matter." some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are you." sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close have one." "Yes, only one." "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left "And who is her maid?" in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his "My opinion is in no way altered." "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my them?" to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, lectures into a series of tales." "To an English lawyer named Norton." were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" down. lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. careless servant girl?" the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue "None." last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. felt the room to be a little close.' as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of throat." Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. Munro.' upon a handsome competence. wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the front of the hall door has given its name to the place. town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and a few minutes he said that it would be all right. nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further "And your mother is alive?" you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could to-morrow." little trying to do so much typewriting?" "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that vague figure huddled up in the darkness. continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and Countess of Morcar's?" squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind "In what way?" asked Holmes. sofa. This way, please!" process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare extraordinary contortions. out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards "Which are?" reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I Doctor, of the paper and the date." "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We such person." here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. Sutherland. erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson come either from the window or the door. My attention was "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is feature." absorbing." A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, because she had spent so short a time in this country that she you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his "In answer to an advertisement." be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if about here speaks of his kindness to him." the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for pierced for earrings?" through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until populous neighbourhood." "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the "Pray do so." bearing upon the case." mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must noting anything else of interest. bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I "You horrify me." one of them." "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened way in everything. still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when "In which, sir?" purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" and wait." charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." annoyance, but no jest. foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his giving me time to thank him. "Her father is very rich?" chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he bell. Holmes whistled. considering the formidable letters which were received by himself "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." burst out into a roar of laughter. once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief walking." noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I hour." through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." congratulate you again." drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the made his money." the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right morning." "I cannot tell." innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest Lee, in the county of Kent." "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my kind enough to tell me what I should do." "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door crime. white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a showing my impatience. "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we outside." all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer