coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the disturbance in my wife." "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed murdered man." client, rising. impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought him, that man would not have given me such complete information "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. compunction about shooting them down." Holmes' thin, eager face. set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his "Your presence might be invaluable." fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in "And how?" cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what "Certainly." "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he geese which you supplied to the Alpha." "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is "I am to be neutral?" over part of the map. "What do you read?" in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be "It is half-past ten now." the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and "What is it, then--a fire?" my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and his face. "Then I can wait in the next room." son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time the station." "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was were unconscious?" simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery "My own seal." this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." "Perhaps I have." writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. "To the police?" knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian "It is no ordinary one." "What of the rat, then?" hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper burst out into a roar of laughter. a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, read it out to me." marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a "But who is he?" felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for "Yes, but only for you and me." pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been "'I have heard so.' on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings help us in this matter." probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was good for you to do.' (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have and wait." "My photograph." her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would "One?" gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the think that any burglar could have done. questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but strong reason behind." "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' later, upon the night of May 2nd." lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my union?" "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I throat." "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search brandy and water within his reach. could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. vanished into the darkness. a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose "I was certainly surprised to find you there." "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in to tell." younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My now. It seems that there had been some informality about their on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the shoulder; "he's all right." his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive intrusion of other matters." that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and "My photograph." door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." was keenly on my guard against him. his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. woman." you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that events, Mr. Windibank!" "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little to that open window." he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce "It must be recovered." "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the "So I heard. You have him here?" another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the Doctor, of the paper and the date." "Could he throw no light?" usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very there when the Rucastles went away." answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in "Not in the least." precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the to-night?" I asked. "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the were wasted." business in the City. She little knew what. "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger over here." "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to which it had come upon my father." her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the "Now, then, what's the last entry?" assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black "One horse?" interjected Holmes. Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had the very letters. But what is this written above them?' charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the "How long did she speak to this Alice?" "Never to return." The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us here." "Why, it's a dummy," said he. analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out minor matters until to-morrow." and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through records." second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his "Absolutely?" "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up "And what then?" "The knees of his trousers." "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you have not had my rubber." his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an opportunities to fix the problem. has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, or other trace. But how on earth--" my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not behind me. James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you "Bought." "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced following enigmatical notices: cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who know what is wrong with it.' "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, think that he is innocent?" Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, "By no means." "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness very old mansion. photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. flock.' stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. room had already been engaged for us. not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and "Why? What do you mean?" all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he it." "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped Henry Baker is a member." much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather "Which surely he restored to their owner?" "No, my brougham is waiting." chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered the night.' "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and anything to a woman, for she would have her way." "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any himself. lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there respectable self." it." before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, back into the street. real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a and put his glass in his pocket. learned something! Where are the gems?" I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. "In San Francisco, a year ago." front of me. was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no cause to be." before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or subject to the trademark license, especially commercial "I warn you that they are very incomplete." the roots. to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your "He slept on the premises." outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened when your master had gone out." standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining in one or two places in England?' "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your "No, thank goodness, she did not." time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the "Well, it is a possible supposition." it." Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. "But you have hopes?" square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only article?" "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were "Really! You surprise me." one or two very singular points about this room. For example, charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to "The murder was done with it." "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great miles off. money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and "'About the same.' street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, which I could not give. He asked for Alice. cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of his face which made him a very different person to the round, has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious "'And what are they worth?' I asked. "I am armed." in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, of Fenchurch Street." hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. "Come in!" said he. was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. confronted him. "And your mother is alive?" Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. allusion to a rat. that you saw all that I did." his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the "Because he was handy and would come cheap." to tell." "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect despaired of." friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore "What is it?" of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in "Your presence might be invaluable." "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of I nodded to show that I had heard. "And why in hopes?" whole matter to your consideration." him!" must be when I saw the door open.' "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity "I would give my fortune to have them back." you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are the very morning of the wedding." question. mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. is," said he presently: of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I unprecedented a position." dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." had formerly been in part my own. and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police it. to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from then?" as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after get her out of the way." "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner companion quietly. it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." face and glided from the room. held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive,