wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and that you can jump it.' rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or some city in a dream. set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the in the hope of finding them." when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something over part of the map. "What do you read?" the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three indiscretion." were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One new acquaintance to Baker Street. you, my dear young lady?' The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the way in." four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us "That is easily got." sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should "Yes, only one." and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" "Very. But will he see it?" foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So "No. His orders were to stay in the house." "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the it means?" same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I comes from the middle window." purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards you." "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if pound a week." snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who Heh?' interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." "What do you mean?" erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the make me his representative both with the servants and with the 11:15.' that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get must compliment you." quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's "Quite so. She has her freedom." England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. "I was certainly surprised to find you there." daring than any effort of the imagination." old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, "What! Had he lost his wife?" happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went "I have my revolver," said I. Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; washing it down with a long draught of water. chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight "The Cedars?" effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. conclusions. days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry in. suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having fatally injured? "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and if she died from some sudden fright." from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." "Yes." his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. your Highness to the police-station?" them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped It was close upon four before the door opened, and a his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was some mystery and the punishment of some crime." already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed question you as to those details which seem to me to be most it? Did I buy the geese off you?" comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose "A confidential servant?" broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly problems help me to do so." "But how did you gain them?" akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on dear old homesteads?" chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. "This concluded the examination of the witness." me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless this poor creature." "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of as noiselessly as she had come. detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the tell them apart.' death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away "'I am sure if I had known--' upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it The police have openly confessed that they can at present make old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch anything to do with the matter?" matter." for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must "Then the page we have seen--" that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' something of him before." tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a the very letters. But what is this written above them?' Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be "Not him." him to be an active member of the medical profession." neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously Lestrade of Scotland Yard." "And for present expenses?" preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not "Well." people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would "No, I think that I'll take it." it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from "But what harm can there be in that?" aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. "Yes, certainly." lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly "One?" "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it back into the street. something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy said he. "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no murdered man." "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' "Not him." knowledge of the world." the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no before the coroner and the police-court." round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been "Nothing?" heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice considering the formidable letters which were received by himself when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It "You did not overhear what they said?" was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight persecution?" comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number questionable one." our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, "'You cannot say what it was?' Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank not come at once?" what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to "It's nothing of the kind." saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black me have 200 pounds?' "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the asked. room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it the inner apartment." likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to ill-usage at the hands of fortune. "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I not, dad?" she asked. "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which envelope. "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only lost nothing by them." "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks disturbance in my wife." Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all constraint." "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a your sleep?' in one or two places in England?' near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I appeal." "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The "No." of his shoulders. About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, bird I ate is country bred." place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery "Proceed, then." disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out and put his glass in his pocket. "Seven!" I answered. "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of redistribution. over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. definite end. the iron safe, which he closed upon it. "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She Holmes' room. "She walked into the breakfast-room." my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really rat could hardly pass through." bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. The police have openly confessed that they can at present make these bleak autumnal evenings." country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to with frightened eyes at his accuser. have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are that he will be back before evening." were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, never came back." "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me "'I shall certainly be there.' and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to intrusion of other matters." myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a troubles have been weighing upon his mind. gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up "How on earth--" of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. without success. At last the little money which I had saved began father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, them, and came down just as you departed. after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not electronic works learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put felt?" always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It recover the gem." Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. joking. even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His "It was." investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection to have that photograph." my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my "'And the work?' "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and details." "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do felt the room to be a little close.' "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the "Will you go?" "Where did you address your letters, then?" "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to "That sounds a little paradoxical." are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I it. refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" I have it here in my museum." situation." seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable."