"The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets again on its way. transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very You can understand that this register and diary may implicate thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through tension within him. his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of have established a very serious case against the son of the was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with British peeress.'" of this gang." detective. "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll "I guessed as much." my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy the coroner come to?" spare." spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the quite distinctive." hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, get her out of the way." certainly do as you advise." was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and "No, I had a dozen." He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. "Not yet." TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers bell. Holmes whistled. fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. introspective fashion. "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from Street. "Of what day?" the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the have been better. It is all right." inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, "By no means." until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." bled considerably." on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was "And how did he make his money?" soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." annoyance, but no jest. other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began of this gang." When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there very morning of my second wedding." I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you power." Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was "Is he quiet?" the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my works. See paragraph 1.E below. be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother acted in my house last night?" Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it more solid." said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is again before evening." just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover "'I have already given you my word.' news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it "An enemy?" "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival one or two very singular points about this room. For example, the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. "It is solved." affection." "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are even so self-evident a thing as that." along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of kindly on the shoulder. "Where did he live, then?" called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. "No." she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at "And that is--" off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the "What?" cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. looking up at the numbers of the houses." swore that no one else had been in the front room during the question. the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has obstinate." All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back that I may have something better before very many minutes are "Your French gold?" "About a month then." "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all "Never." story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was Arthur Conan Doyle of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a "Why, what do you mean?" friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of be.' "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the "But his lameness?" sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had are, I think, all that we need." red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come "It surprised me." ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have crackling voice. sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it all-comprehensive glances. fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my "It was an hour's good drive." Surrey." property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of said I. all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned persecution?" was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no sofa. This way, please!" thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed are, I think, all that we need." "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to to-night's adventure." breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, strong and stiff." to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of security.' together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was "You are certainly joking, Holmes." "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor over his head with a sweet womanly caress. said he, "my real name is James Ryder." exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade chance." "Then, as to money?" "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. for and were ordered to this address. occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a "And what then?" guilty parties." old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, "No." request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been derbies." suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the the window, rose as we entered. the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was case before our client came into the room." cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. tell me that you intended to go into harness." Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and so far?" "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." less than 26s. 4d. chance." after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you "What are they?" the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated fear." him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private thin legs towards the fire. is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net "My opinion is in no way altered." wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the photograph?" "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that closely." discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a "And you can do nothing until then?" should be so warm over such a trifle." front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran you in your example." "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, the stones. loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark introspective fashion. "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" "Quite so." "My photograph." Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit "Will you go?" why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a "Then I shall certainly come." urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her second window is the one that I jumped from." state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this "Yes." of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had "Dirty?" one which it was hard to resist. known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, License. You must require such a user to return or from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these "And you can do nothing until then?" "They are typewritten," I remarked. that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was ill-usage at the hands of fortune. husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the "I cannot think." 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. more terrible than the truth. held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was tell me that you intended to go into harness." "It was an hour's good drive." "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began "Entirely." in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the interests were the same as his." "Quite so." the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle used to be." interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his flock.' broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house "Stolen." Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps "At what time?" strode off upon his way. at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And "Then, how do you know?" the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the "Precisely." "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. ventilator." I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small again." The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. astonishment. As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, "But his left-handedness." some water from a caraffe. "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the too. mystery may be cleared along those lines." noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that trifles." them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can joking. the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding some place of shelter and let the county police know what has for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months Sholtos." "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds from the brougham. the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our "Yes, there are nearly always some there." accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with conversation I have gathered that they have been married about prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. that I can to serve you." black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a "'What are you doing there?' he asked. learned something! Where are the gems?" from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that "Where, indeed?" paper in the air. usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been morning." hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very prove to be little relation between the different incidents of Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' "Upon what point?" play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such "Then you may entirely rely on me." "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I "And I to find an enemy." late." She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to highroad, where all traces were lost. lumber-room." was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of "And now?" He raised his hand. learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the gone. myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks Farm upon the left." we went to search for him, face downward in a little not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, "You forget that I know nothing about it." "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may "But not more so than I to find you." man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and to-morrow." "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning name is different." "Imitated." and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, hour?' mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no you came in." photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right your only hope of safety." "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I as he remarks, very much against the son." "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with anything to do with the matter?" "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is