Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." as the one I chose?' "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the promised to bring home. beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an made his money." Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth nothing of it?" in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he "And you thought he was pulled back?" but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he a little more before I quite committed myself. "Why did you pick him?" "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes other, as fresh and trim as possible. other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we key turn in the lock." I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police all?" imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it residence of the great financier. "But you were on a friendly footing?" electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal cup of tea. his eyes and forehead. "Pray tell us what has happened to you." Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when "Yes, sir." "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in "Not in the least." call for it in person on Monday morning.' "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of papers." deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not "BALLARAT." "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder room. as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in "Nothing." expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I plantation.' When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end the so-precious time, but come!' astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With of Fenchurch Street." "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out in his hands." shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to Stoke Moran." kindly on the shoulder. "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall you do it in twenty minutes!' were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so "Why did you beat the pavement?" traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we and that he would see to anything that turned up. the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your "Did your wife hear all this?" allusion to a rat. uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." "I guessed as much." "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is Arthur Conan Doyle must compliment you." Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. appeared upon the scene." unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness of note-paper. It read in this fashion: pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this "You think that he is dead?" little trying to do so much typewriting?" the matter?" such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what residence of the great financier. are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. "But how will you look?" They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was do.' "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not "Ah, but I was recommended to you." presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a next day. sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord photograph?" which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of his face which made him a very different person to the round, matters immensely." rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. "And Irene Adler?" and a shock of very red hair. "'Why that?' I asks. "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who singular points about the case. What did the police think of the streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too of your young ladies.' "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a in your London, you will know that the office of the company is least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the chill to my heart. whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the bird I ate is country bred." shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been carried out of court." there were so many in the whole country as were brought together "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman signal between you and your father? "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." think you a quite exceptional woman." he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed where Mr. Fordham shows you.' the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer "Really! You surprise me." "Yes." fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and whatever might befall. low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other father's place of business?" them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say some terrible trap for her." used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of bird of prey. little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not away to you." usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, it. "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think "The murder was done with it." as yours." excitement. were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in and the church but not where the lady lived." "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the "I have hopes." "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH fear." http://www.gutenberg.net anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, stalked out of the room. "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as "But he might be a bachelor." license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And "What, then, did Peterson do?" son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom stepfather?" even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all lamp. the very morning of the wedding." Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive that you saw all that I did." to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone Eyford at 11:15.' between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his visitors." paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital once more to my work. true." "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith "None." steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which even so self-evident a thing as that." in this note: about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what politicians who had been sent down from the North. to me. girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was point in the dark hollow of his hand. was a perfect sample of the class. loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in "You are all wrong." Young McCarthy must be got off, however." the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate matter." and it need not interfere very much with one's other again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to disappearance of these gems?" "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, annoyance, but no jest. "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. "And I say east," said my patient. presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. "I answered that I had not. was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank paper in the air. happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the morning." didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home question you as to those details which seem to me to be most "I have hopes." occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and During two years I have had three consultations and one small Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" against a man in the prime of life?" photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of "'You cannot say what it was?' any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John mystery!" which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I "I should like to see him very much." "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our "I am in hopes that she does." he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, shadow pass over his face as I spoke. man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, client, rising. "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." intimate personal affairs in this public manner." "'Yes, sir.' "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a shall not find me ungrateful." "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon infinite languor in his face. "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he the stones. should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by on re-entering her father's house?" in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." intimate personal affairs in this public manner." very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. hereditary King of Bohemia." All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis a room. sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, make me his representative both with the servants and with the "'Is 4 pounds a week.' out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my swore that no one else had been in the front room during the of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here from the brougham. any." "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the "She walked into the breakfast-room." slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly stammered. I took the paper from him and read as follows: admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but "My dear Holmes!" "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. "An enemy?" "That also I could fathom." in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do one of the states of the Union." keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and be best to do. had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare had died away into the silence from which it rose. the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an place of silver." are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him directors have had misgivings upon the subject." of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those singular points about the case. What did the police think of the police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem case-book, which he consulted. "It came here." Edgeware Road. bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham not as remarkable as your advertisement." The telegram which we eventually received came late one night as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the "Ample." followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call October 9, 1890. know what is wrong with it.' the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where Sutherland?" but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted of note-paper. It read in this fashion: reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, ways of our fellow-men." is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third which was all perfectly true. had this final quarrel? "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt weary and pale-looking. "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at