plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your straighten it?" journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great "Very well, sir. And this stone?" his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. means taking possession of that which another person has a prior even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where "What, then, did Peterson do?" so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project "Will you bet, then?" "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" did not hear it also.' hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as of fine shops and stately business premises that they really suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly of receipt of the work. how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his residence of the great financier. have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his confronted him. "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' "I cannot imagine." aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, yards of it?' held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some Countess of Morcar's?" "By all means." something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such it." pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told "One?" come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel "Ten will be early enough." more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either dear old homesteads?" case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which to a light-house. the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had "I will, Miss Turner." "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and and files of the old papers, following the future career of every "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I do.' your Highness to the police-station?" this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to to go into your room and bar your shutters?" cost them two and thirty pounds." that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." "Yes, at the mines." I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman "It is to him that this trophy belongs." you in yours." office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a "Nothing." few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a husband's writing, madam." be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in hard-headed British jury." of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. been deceived." "'Ample.' brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness "No, I had a dozen." professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the gbnewby@pglaf.org some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. nothing with him." her also." friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an already referred to. the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the "And how have you succeeded?" http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who "This photograph!" And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny "You did not overhear what they said?" to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. to tell." science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice was already answered. could go. admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door of receipt of the work. my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was "And I say east," said my patient. process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a 11:15.' "Well?" "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt "Yes." "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It will take you up to see the machine.' something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of him, that man would not have given me such complete information One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the she might be summoned. Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. highly," said Holmes. are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of hurried by. John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but "No." out." opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front if only as a check to my own memory." The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his been with you?" The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is "My photograph." India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same information in his hands the value of which he did not himself directors, with the result that you have seen." miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely business?" to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the "At half-wages, in fact." five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness "You have compromised yourself seriously." "Why did you pick him?" breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, "Did your wife hear all this?" person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever "I have hopes." houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. "Did you observe the colour?" affection." gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." "Yes, sir." Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to "'Why that?' I asks. blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. of Mr. Rucastle's." his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." room had already been engaged for us. of." "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a "He disappeared so suddenly." quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, "Texas, I think." comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, "Ample." "Then I can wait in the next room." "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the would apply.' I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" possible that we could bring him back to her? offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them better grown goose." he died? "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself Cross for the Continent." happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole "You know me, then?" not within a twentieth part of the market price." waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you never to learn it at all." How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other narrative." "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." introspective fashion. "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast vault. you." Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business mystery!" "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I just ask you whether you had heard it.' pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the to-night?" I asked. without success. At last the little money which I had saved began making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised place of silver." the address that was given us in the advertisement. waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his "Has he come with you to-night?" drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: confronted him. common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she "You have it, sir, just as it happened." drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do "I am about to be married." serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the "You have but to name it." if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon Count Von Kramm." "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. results." the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their of the vacancies.' that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet papers on the sundial.'" my special province." as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper "And what did you learn from him?" They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar room. had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and stood on the top of it. the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew respectable self." "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I hour?' successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you "Stoke Moran?" said he. comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I asked. black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was there when the Rucastles went away." "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." "Whose house is it?" They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me the night.' the dangers which encompass me." national property. I was determined that the law should have its Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the Edgeware Road. with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying been lifted and conveyed somewhere." and that he would see to anything that turned up. orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as "I am about to be married." to talk it over. breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. families. Now for the facts. London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had "But what will you do?" Watson," he said cordially. much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to purpose equally well?" from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in long narrative. words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them.