later, upon the night of May 2nd." light and attacked it." refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity Serpentine Avenue. upon an income of about 60 pounds." other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when "Very. But will he see it?" waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running things are very often connected not with the larger but with the that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. everything which you would wish to know." His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we "It must be recovered." me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. yards of it?' myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in that he has suffered." drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a your own bird, so if you wish--" one which it was hard to resist. "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of imbecility!" he cried. following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and License. You must require such a user to return or spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his recover the gem." fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, morning." geese which you supplied to the Alpha." "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an directors, with the result that you have seen." however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would it." "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat and no precautions can guard against." friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore in my life." in the port of London." cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which It may be so in this case, also." he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added done what I asked you, Jones?" I nodded to show that I had heard. disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your "'Most admirably.' Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and guilty parties." Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat simple cases which are so extremely difficult." We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy "'And the work?' d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an his huge brown hands. here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel companion. window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a "Why, what do you mean?" silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that "But how will you look?" "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about woman who has had her own way to make in the world. been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, "No more words. Get out!" most important business. It is probable that he will be away all McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey you." "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it upon the shelf for the interim." house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. was not a bird to be seen there. I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have highroad, where all traces were lost. informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not not interfere, come what may. You understand?" Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the in the port of London." salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my be. little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the if she died from some sudden fright." "I have solved it." hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that such person." round and wave him away like that.' after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, "I am all attention, madam." nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a "The best possible." Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." my special province." contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." went to the Alpha were town bred." America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or skylight. and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker maiden herself was most instructive." other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly "Yes, they were peculiar boots." may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about less than 26s. 4d. sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was "It is very kind of you." front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows foresight and the moral retrogression?" Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the a room. brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was to affect your life." week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read pound a week." near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as to some other building. minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden "Nearly eleven." Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their recover the gem." "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and "He disappeared so suddenly." agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and colour had been driven from his face. south, for the country is more deserted there." just called myself is not exactly my own." fact, we may call it conclusive." "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said this remarkable episode. the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside "To an end?" time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not "I say it is." standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, "And your mother is alive?" "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the "Entirely." as he folded up the epistle. relation between them, and what the object of his repeated shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six "Did you observe the colour?" from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a business matters.' dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was "And your mother is alive?" doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. "It goes to the housekeeper's room." them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that "He disappeared so suddenly." fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John best detective that ever lived. "'What, the red-headed man?' horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant "Not yet." she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper "Will you bet, then?" perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of in. purpose equally well?" she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. nonsense.' points to suicide?" Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, country, and eventually married, without anyone having a upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. said he at last. his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have through." I am not easy in my mind about them." and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the breakfast and whispered something to her husband. house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which married her." collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly examine." they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. the bed, and you in that chair." "'And the work?' Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of "How long did she speak to this Alice?" from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a in the dead of the night?' Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several "I am armed." that you saw all that I did." "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he which we had just quitted. "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which of the vacancies.' said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for British peeress.'" How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." delighted to hear it," he said. he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, "What office?" course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did own family. them, and came down just as you departed. and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in my former friend and companion. "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, ways including including checks, online payments and credit card Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I could not account in any way for the presence of the missing "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and "By no means." "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a "My photograph." "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the go back?" "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush "I should be immensely obliged to you." probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it it. drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That "Murdered?" know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But "Very well, sir. And this stone?" make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" who was a member of your goose club." even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as "What! Had he lost his wife?" evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the "The Cedars?" face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute the morning and make my own way in the world.' and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in "Then I shall certainly come." "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated my little problems." age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be since then to throw any light upon what became of him." in his hands." just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a young Openshaw's." calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little "Nothing?" railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and "Of what?" round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have "It may not come to that," said Holmes. have not had my rubber." rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could in the hope of finding them." call for protection in the marriage market, for the present remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, me." "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's "I will, Miss Turner." and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all "Bought." rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, crime." he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to client, rising. neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather persecution?" "I should like to see him very much." wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There