The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called humiliation." considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. think that any burglar could have done. "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, "Come in!" said he. evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own "You think so, too?" "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. "Thank you. And your address?" the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away the ceiling. a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for this remarkable episode. will he say when he returns?" mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this friend's singular character. had no one to advise her at such a crisis." there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards "Then I can wait in the next room." spare." of it with the greatest attention. reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" "No bad?" the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in "Thank you. Pray proceed." little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I hour?' "I have my revolver," said I. gentleman's clothes. could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing Project Gutenberg-tm works. from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. fattened it expressly for you.' "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a Clair, of Lee." high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a gives a meaning to it." "The rest you will leave in our hands." not come at once?" "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the "It is no ordinary one." DAMAGE. you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic telegram would bring me down to your help." It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my "I will get her to show me." "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, "Upon what point?" "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" second window is the one that I jumped from." of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned "'I am sure if I had known--' her also." to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." "Yes." The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of "That sounds a little paradoxical." "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. within hail.' "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was me upon any point which I do not make clear." points in connection with it which never have been, and probably well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you "I came to find a friend." to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it his forehead." "Very much so." "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of fish-monger and a tide-waiter." "Nearly eleven." the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three lamp. comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate so.' have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing "'What would be the hours?' I asked. down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such emerged. him." the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated Clair, of Lee." dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he of receipt of the work. chill to my heart. waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not "Certainly." that the gas is not laid on in his house?" of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, is now desirous of getting those letters back." "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most "'Stolen!' he cried. ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or "What office?" it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. nothing of it?" gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who and prosperity to your house. Good-night." "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" always that they were such commands as a lady might with "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man in your London, you will know that the office of the company is opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was "I cannot think." very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for "Where is it, then?" "That you are never beaten." opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. past. Mary, has deserted me." thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the "No. What a strange idea!" "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a which I could not give. He asked for Alice. much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting him." "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the distinguish the words: "The gentleman I describe." effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, "I am in hopes that she does." with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this out." "Why? What do you mean?" road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' one else, I think." Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by next day. the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and cigar and let me expound." appeared upon the scene." "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had "'It is locked up,' I answered. very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. was once confined in the cab my mission was practically One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. "Yes, it would be as well." points to suicide?" I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, his face which made him a very different person to the round, "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are the Red-headed League." with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father "That is possible." Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." "What is it, then--a fire?" Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection "Not yet." branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and Cross for the Continent." "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, than to us. photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. over with notes and figures. events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went of a light. "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having "Precisely." which are rolled in Rotterdam." coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him John Swain, of St. Augustine. "You are all wrong." enter Dr. Roylott's room." Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, to a light-house. the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among to-night?" I asked. Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out "What will you do, then?" perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he thirty. He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most "Murdered?" "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty you give your casting vote to?" inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. "Precisely so. But how--" the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you "She told me to ask you." the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every annoyance, but no jest. "'Is purely nominal.' sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, "I see no marks." computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more retorted upon me, and I on you." the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A foot. know all about it," he snarled. were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at main points of my analysis." him." his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" "My stepfather's business papers." "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. bonnet, and went out." hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was it." rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving views." my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the returned to France?" staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting on in his house." frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the "I have solved it." "We must sit without light. He would see it through the his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his "No." "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. seen the man in the road." out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him system of imprisonment?" There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence looking up at the numbers of the houses." British peeress.'" face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business "Why? What do you mean?" "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, "What! Had he lost his wife?" scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in answer." will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something "I was afraid that you were engaged." and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and one of the states of the Union." him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly Chief Executive and Director France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." photograph a cabinet?" nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his she has been waylaid. There has been no result." dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had evidence," I remarked. Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect Holmes. "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my in the port of London." "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried really the only notable feature about the thing." "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for sooner or later she must fall a victim. ways of our fellow-men." "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own "Yes." hands were tied in the matter. I went and saw him. At first, of would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had "Never." concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his Does that suggest anything?" work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at in this way: knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with would apply.' you." a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project then?" "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has "The Cedars?" discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." vault. much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where "My photograph." "'I have heard so.' "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. face and glided from the room. and looked back. "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until,