a few minutes he said that it would be all right. "From his hat?" anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed hour?' hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much 1.F. followed. problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the happened." "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your "Ah!" "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face enter Dr. Roylott's room." spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white had died away into the silence from which it rose. although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham allusion to a rat. "How did that help you?" that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a been." While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a in him." here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary good-night and bustled off upon her way. pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be the ceiling. "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his have had none more fantastic than this." knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from noble correspondent could be. beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, of your young ladies.' "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated my room." door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without where she found matters as described by the last witness. But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no just ask you whether you had heard it.' tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon seven miles from Eyford Station.' There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." fasten all the windows?" freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did matter." just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful were new raised from a basin. mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that "Yes." as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf Arthur Conan Doyle Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no situation." behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner yourselves in at night?" evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It forebodings. giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the singular points about the case. What did the police think of the adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant I was concerned in it." "It is true that I have been generally successful." door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ done what I asked you, Jones?" afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing was feeling which was the fattest.' "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, call for it in person on Monday morning.' "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a that he will be back before evening." "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of cause to be." that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One "Frequently." "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two when your master had gone out." in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a in. "It must be recovered." "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at stalked out of the room. presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with "I am all attention, madam." from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall never came back." gone. charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock "And you thought he was pulled back?" streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect rat could hardly pass through." the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." think that any burglar could have done. contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of "'Very good.' "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should in a very precise fashion." "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. sneer upon his pale face. the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. "Two days later this same performance was gone through under "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the "No, finished." he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." "Ha! you find it so?" I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." "Pray do so." but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but have established a very serious case against the son of the among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend I took the paper from him and read as follows: wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the became a certainty. against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed "At half-wages, in fact." travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a my former friend and companion. light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly you." stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. believe that I should never have any practice at all. "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and woman who has had her own way to make in the world. blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as outside. "Dr. Becher's." against a man in the prime of life?" "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have over with notes and figures. an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. "You saw the ventilator, too?" along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else all?" Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy to miss it." call for it in person on Monday morning.' "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever During two years I have had three consultations and one small "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" more terrible than the truth. "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. wedding?" Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been "We must have a cab." annoyance, but no jest. "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much hour." have had none more fantastic than this." flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched copied or distributed: the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little developed." "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, during which he might have communicated with his friend the galvanised. cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." client, rising. yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At perplexity from it to my illustrious client. front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. instincts rose up against that laugh. you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you or in danger--" light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an which we had just quitted. as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the questioning and rather startled gaze. homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has you found me to-night--and running through the front room she very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: God! What an exposure! What can I do?" Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." followed. whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the death." breakfast and whispered something to her husband. a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked the devil!" success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant point our research must commence, and we will begin it by police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the gone. would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, forehead. from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as see a sister of mine apply for." almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me possible that we could bring him back to her? stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at "No, but the enclosure is." of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' undoubtedly my uncle's." superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke most interesting one." gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not to that open window." He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white "Yes." tassel actually lying upon the pillow. he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the "They are typewritten," I remarked. hurried by. "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or foresight and the moral retrogression?" face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, his forehead." for securing the situation." then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search "I will try. What is it?" other means.' and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which your billet.' "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was it with his own hands." could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; room had already been engaged for us. of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have once more on the important position which you have been fortunate Holmes' room. enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. relief. firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside writer." "Yes." "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known in his power. should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which some city in a dream. photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, Street. "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. cigars in the box." results." errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. most important business. It is probable that he will be away all triumphant cloud from his cigarette. morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such but preventing her from injuring another. "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the know that the truth is known." "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes "It is half-past ten now." do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not "'Yes, sir.' of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, place, I think that there is good ground to think that the or in danger--" "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, "They are typewritten," I remarked. with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in had a long day." appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." as the one I chose?' "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the "'I shall certainly be there.' frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through you?' returned to France?" the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the "No, distinctly professional." fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with anything to do with the matter?" against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you man. younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were Does that suggest anything?" not as remarkable as your advertisement." "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly "None. Neville wrote those words." "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in