of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which "Where to?" Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled Dr. Gregory B. Newby "Well, some hundreds of times." certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing rose-bushes. Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local "Witness: Nothing definite. of note-paper. It read in this fashion: lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I waste of energy." making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt bed dies. Does not that strike you?" accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw "That you are never beaten." band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend over here." frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." wedding?" He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, existence." "That's no good." fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that McCarthy." red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out "No?" think, you have already met." seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without place no limit on the sum I may draw." "We must have a cab." from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the putting in the horse. "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not along the entire front of the house, with three long windows gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been seen the man in the road." is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as "Have you it here?" fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to lids now and glanced across at his visitor. to tell." without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than works. See paragraph 1.E below. firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a hand, madam?" "Not in a good cause." morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End breakfast." when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I depend upon your compliance." I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he even of instruction." Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. completely overtopped every other consideration that we both defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our impression behind it as though a window had gently closed was lame." "He disappeared so suddenly." happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard begun to whiten, even as mine has." Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime on re-entering her father's house?" "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its "I warn you that they are very incomplete." sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. asked. tension within him. face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a unprofitable." incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I are, and they are waiting for us." here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our cause to be." you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." "Yes, all." 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be to where he stood hid behind the curtain. to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted village inn over there?" instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet the salesman. "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had memory. and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the "I will, Miss Turner." there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the directly by questioning you." "My dear Holmes!" charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began photograph a cabinet?" 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little business." make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my "Ah!" "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the correct than the official force." note?" horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that 'I should be able to look after that for you.' "By no means." Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who "Two days later this same performance was gone through under "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" neither fascinating nor artistic." bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, questionable one." "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall considering the formidable letters which were received by himself might have a private word with us. flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the His name is Francis Prosper." "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the "What have you to say now?" get her out of the way." the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait Countess of Morcar's?" "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the "That was it, sir." bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." Countess of Morcar's?" eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very morning." like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror "No bad?" him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner works. See paragraph 1.E below. "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my not come at once?" centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and "The decline of his fortunes, then?" posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and "How many? I don't know." that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the "I see no marks." enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause along the entire front of the house, with three long windows "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, "You saw the ventilator, too?" 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to "Well." points in connection with it which never have been, and probably "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole I leave." it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a "It is no ordinary one." "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the "I cannot imagine." leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the himself to tell his story. twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a "To an English lawyer named Norton." "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom "'Never.' until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I that I may have something better before very many minutes are passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of "And why in hopes?" the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must It was close upon four before the door opened, and a peculiar to him. directly by questioning you." by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My "'Ample.' watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call "Where to?" have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right gone. adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to husband's writing, madam." "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his in the dead of the night?' ourselves in the office." He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and then?" open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of "Yes, sir." tail." Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." "On the contrary, this is the right side." key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box "How long did she speak to this Alice?" would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about call it cruel." and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have "You think that he is dead?" has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project over part of the map. "What do you read?" "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion "One horse?" interjected Holmes. "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the "I think that I had better go, Holmes." what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head envelope. gone. "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was drawing your inferences." it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a you." side. "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my "And how did you find out?" was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know "Yes, at the mines." has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, said Mr. Holder. at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon four million human beings all jostling each other within the wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and most important business. It is probable that he will be away all "Certainly, madam." There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set "Then the page we have seen--" and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every lost his Christmas dinner." just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has "Stoke Moran?" said he. his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce impression behind it as though a window had gently closed that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a "What have you to say now?" friends, not even his own brother. wife's character?" "Where, then?" convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. the coronet at all injured?" If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project union?" could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I "No, I am descending." "No more words. Get out!" "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." keep the flames under. myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that here." "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell despair." empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two upon an income of about 60 pounds." when you have done it." chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed nothing with him." arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the you found me to-night--and running through the front room she License. You must require such a user to return or tell me that you intended to go into harness." over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, the devil!" where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to meanly of me." eavesdroppers?' me upon any point which I do not make clear." chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an breakfast." "And you thought he was pulled back?" me have 200 pounds?' laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the redistribution. value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the "And I say east," said my patient. and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of I took the paper from him and read as follows: as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily "ARAT," I read. get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates eat it." the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to "No." Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you God! What an exposure! What can I do?" "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it page at http://pglaf.org drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." could gather together that I was able to avert another public weapon." his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came be there in time for your coming." feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather of." and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with mystery!" course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his