look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the desk. "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that "Where, indeed?" shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what "Proceed, then." all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon Pope's Court, Fleet Street." fled together." The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with I have it here in my museum." He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" "Well, some hundreds of times." Leave Paddington by the 11:15." a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and "Yes." He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is occupations.' you, my dear young lady?' The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. address. written, and locked the door of the office after me. outside." since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then against a man in the prime of life?" St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn husband's writing, madam." in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. other, as fresh and trim as possible. entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are be best to do. everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for "Yes, at the mines." surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the noting anything else of interest. received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong suspect him." and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." where she found matters as described by the last witness. "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a been lifted and conveyed somewhere." said I. stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. this man was intellectual?" fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." little trying to do so much typewriting?" never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE some terrible trap for her." photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the "What?" that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was read over the extraordinary announcement. know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear beg that you will break it off." grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove father's young wife. events than those which have happened in my own family." village inn over there?" trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his client, rising. hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, "No." in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it name is different." Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their "Perhaps we may make them less so." two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in "No, I think that I'll take it." possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking the ceiling. answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a Eyford at 11:15.' to-night." "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem do.' as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked "Quite so. She has her freedom." the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to strength in the others." about here speaks of his kindness to him." my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. "'You doubt its value?' he asked. "The King of Scandinavia." in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he in darkness. know all about it," he snarled. began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had before, for it was considerably after midnight. gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a spark where all is dark to me." to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for shaken than I had ever seen him. hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper in him." in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need tapping his fingers upon the table. yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with overpowering excitement and concern. precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." License. You must require such a user to return or "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door works. "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. used to be." feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. will he say when he returns?" the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, "The decline of his fortunes, then?" your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate down from London to inquire more deeply into it." door?" stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, "Yes." over his head with a sweet womanly caress. "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen Lestrade of Scotland Yard." very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, asked. her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. the one as in the other." Heh?' cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and was a perfect sample of the class. Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the enter Dr. Roylott's room." "But his left-handedness." husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." lumber-room." Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" which I could not give. He asked for Alice. jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' chair. few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six "But what harm can there be in that?" description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, the iron safe, which he closed upon it. he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in tapping his fingers upon the table. "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" and I shall be with you presently." that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I been with you?" "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. the child." impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been papers on the sundial.'" world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the ventilator." I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, "Certainly, madam." your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is "Nothing." upon a handsome competence. right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. had picked up in the wood. "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured locked. "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is "That is easily got." encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. "And how have you succeeded?" son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured "I am all attention, madam." village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker beg that you will break it off." laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove "What I expected to see." meanly of me." might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's "The doctor?" the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began "Nothing?" a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the searched, without anything being found which could incriminate you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and "It goes to the housekeeper's room." "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there rose-bushes. "You have it, sir, just as it happened." cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, imbecility!" he cried. "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I mysterious end." I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being the roots. "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low "Get out!" said he. glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's which are rolled in Rotterdam." "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. desk. fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his copied or distributed: course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." crime. "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." opportunities to fix the problem. laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and I shall continue with my miserable story. "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and "ARAT," I read. their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It looking up at the numbers of the houses." "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their it with his own hands." "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few was keenly on my guard against him. that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves right! Sit down and let us talk it over." "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to these bleak autumnal evenings." Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms felt the room to be a little close.' high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," sooner or later she must fall a victim. A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked "No, distinctly professional." to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a interest. They are important, you understand, without being during the last few years, and there are many noble families to where we are going." "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does "But what is it you wish?" presented more singular features than that which was associated observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already highroad, where all traces were lost. taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, "But you would not advise me to refuse?" get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I heavy and sharp instrument." by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital one of them." some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De is now desirous of getting those letters back." "Witness: It was. did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And "A confidential servant?" "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point Sutherland. "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he geese which you supplied to the Alpha." charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary "I am all attention, madam." "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the "'Most admirably.' III. I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this direction." "Did your wife hear all this?" ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you "No." waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. room had already been engaged for us. your troubles." or other trace. But how on earth--" established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots them, and came down just as you departed. "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the He broke the seal and glanced over the contents.