much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your subject to the trademark license, especially commercial "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a lips." said he. like gravel from a pit.' James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a Arthur Conan Doyle He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the "It's nothing of the kind." out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a second window is the one that I jumped from." and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I had this final quarrel? to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to said he. madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' "And Miss Sutherland?" observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and was it brought him the coronet? "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of crowd. as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the the general public were present, then?" swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of man. hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he "I see no marks." "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these "Come in!" said he. say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do heavy and sharp instrument." well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just Surrey." moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her how narrow had been my escape. "What!" he roared. go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' "Yes, only one." followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner this unhappy family?" always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a "I should like to see him very much." salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" "And your mother is alive?" high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I forebodings. "I cannot imagine." off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the in a friendly supper." by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low God! What an exposure! What can I do?" rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife very morning of my second wedding." blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look such person." "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, sound at heart." extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked arrangements." why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have once more for Briony Lodge. leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has matter over." possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left not interfere, come what may. You understand?" could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that lost his Christmas dinner." "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn "And who is her maid?" cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the nights." fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on "Tired-looking or fresh?" A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it "No, I am descending." "'Then let me do so?' "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a "And your father? Did you tell him?" "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there of the efforts of the United States government and of the better done what I asked you, Jones?" searched, without anything being found which could incriminate worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with your Highness to the police-station?" news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair Leadenhall Street--and--" so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very conceal it?" "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you away into the river." fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us all that?" "Certainly, madam." "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name get the tickets." use an arc-and-compass breastpin." which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of Clair, of Lee." through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were status with the IRS. in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was chance at all." Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing conclusions. old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain "On your arm?" "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. "I am to be neutral?" The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, rooms." young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." "And you can do nothing until then?" rat could hardly pass through." over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I "Yes, all." remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it "And sit in the dark?" such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over "Because he was handy and would come cheap." "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have said he at last. to some other building. about here speaks of his kindness to him." comes from the middle window." "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more is a common subject for conversation. "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could never to learn it at all." "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." future lives." clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre "I was certainly surprised to find you there." without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, Chief Executive and Director detective. 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest meant." desk. gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my at a side door. smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical I shall communicate with you." "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' system of imprisonment?" professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he "'Where could I find him?' showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few became a certainty. Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted country, and eventually married, without anyone having a generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the deduce something from that?" other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less God! What an exposure! What can I do?" remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination events, Mr. Windibank!" instituted." "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies indiscretion." say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. My friend smiled. acted in my house last night?" "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the "The best possible." murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other do." now. It seems that there had been some informality about their closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was Chief Executive and Director an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank or other trace. But how on earth--" it right.' I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, "What are they?" and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who "Not in a good cause." your bag." think that any burglar could have done. half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note redistribution. despaired of." interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush "Stoke Moran?" said he. in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, confronted him. bore every mark of being an average commonplace British did not hear it also.' "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." the little opening for the ventilator is." "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. memory. corner of the building. days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. when you have done it." are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a "Quite so. She has her freedom." hair?' been able to understand it, in a very few words. description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a tell him that I know him to be innocent." One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle locked. "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has in this note: There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that in. me upon any point which I do not make clear." thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. "I fear not." and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the "'And what salary do you ask?' old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress "Then you may entirely rely on me." back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my to surprise her." during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land indiscretion." "A greater distance to travel." know that the truth is known." for its centre. life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at "Ha! you find it so?" he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a be there in time for your coming." some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would "What will you say?" note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair a room. he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything amused." "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did "I cannot imagine." round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should "'And the work?' Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove husband's writing, madam." that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came conceal it?" and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. "BALLARAT." grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the "Ah, but I was recommended to you." this poor creature." "His face fell immediately. cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and "Why did you pick him?" without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance nothing with him." "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been would apply.' of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So