"And that is--" II. wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, "Have you her photograph?" extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door Countess of Morcar's?" "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge you do it in twenty minutes!' the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a how narrow had been my escape. While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began married her." recover the gem." someone who had been in Australia." and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." returned to France?" "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it at once, for I have only half an hour." crowd. "Here?" "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been possible that we could bring him back to her? mystery." "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard "'Certainly not. But why?' depend upon my doing so.' set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the fire. You quite follow me?" states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set "'Certainly not. But why?' Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of as noiselessly as she had come. "Nor running a chance of arrest?" therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have "Very murderous indeed." Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled more solid." have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, minor matters until to-morrow." across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. "To an end?" a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you at once, for I have only half an hour." to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well my little problems." Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the locked." reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a ordinary clothes on?" "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his cigars in the box." be sorry for having acted so harshly." "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still "That's no good." he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. friend's singular character. the salesman. to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce locked." predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from use an arc-and-compass breastpin." "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been "I should be immensely obliged to you." could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, be.' well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face held up the lantern and gazed about him. Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently "Where to?" you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police existence." We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in not within a twentieth part of the market price." or other trace. But how on earth--" just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an I approached. "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a client, rising. "My stepfather's business papers." "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were tell them apart.' seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which "What office?" have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are she might be summoned. "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall records." Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful very morning of my second wedding." male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the "My own seal." the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his and your relations to her." "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, over his head with a sweet womanly caress. probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." "Never." joking. hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me "No." grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the room had already been engaged for us. "Breckinridge is his name." right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the the bottom.' my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at strength of mind to control. "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by here." public press." upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If chance at all." Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it "Yes, they were peculiar boots." is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white retorted upon me, and I on you." "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to the stable lane now." without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout "I was afraid that you were engaged." to some other building. want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel the coronet at all injured?" "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap read over the extraordinary announcement. "Not him." money should be paid at once.' into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and better grown goose." unprecedented a position." disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander which was all perfectly true. been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and of the one which your family is now devouring." was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to soul! here is her carriage at the door." arrangements." "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the charged with?" acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no to take care of herself." truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' lips." the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, strode off upon his way. to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one handed it to him. What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your which we had just quitted. misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If "You heard nothing yourself last night?" anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all advice." other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, "The Cedars?" "Which are?" introspective fashion. made him keep the appointment." had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the "Look there!" said he. time." "Will you bet, then?" "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the in this way: even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass "So I heard. You have him here?" "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered "And you can do nothing until then?" "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was "I don't believe it." metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he "Only as much as we can deduce." it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" away to you." "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it detained." over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through events than those which have happened in my own family." without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you astonishment. halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." and shall probably return to London by the evening train." edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little "What?" little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees astonishment. mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it with you?" We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much that this remarkable episode. "Then I can wait in the next room." furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we "It is half-past ten now." "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a considering the formidable letters which were received by himself was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to "'Certainly not.' Mrs. Toller serenely. schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me the running down." I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the and put his glass in his pocket. having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. cause to be." perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do not within a twentieth part of the market price." trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself rooms." rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms be.' as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in "Precisely so. But how--" "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds "'What are you doing there?' he asked. husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the is so. I know all about McCarthy." Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of are, I think, all that we need." him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray could not account in any way for the presence of the missing for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted pierced for earrings?" "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon pierced for earrings?" companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it newspaper selections." Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said back alive. Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the Holmes' face clouded over. window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the "About a month then." description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the "How do you know, then?" was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your threw himself down with his face to the pillow. His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of there when the Rucastles went away." coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." "I would give my fortune to have them back." which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, "My private note-paper." Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." "Nothing?" a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had such person." Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See "My private note-paper." "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that kind enough to tell me what I should do." could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic corner of the building. who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the strange features which were associated with the two crimes which very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this "I would pay ten." "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. "Yes. He waved his hands." "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I "No." Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the asked. but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to