fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, father's place of business?" the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried second window is the one that I jumped from." We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so and files of the old papers, following the future career of every America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs hands. coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another acquaintance?" Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew here." ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident of note-paper. It read in this fashion: observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." companion. hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got "Certainly." seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money footfalls from the street. bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a entirely devoid of interest." was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering is so. I know all about McCarthy." "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little think that he is innocent?" my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the "'Ample.' bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards drawing your inferences." The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating "Yes, at the mines." London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have copied or distributed: name is different." passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." prove to be little relation between the different incidents of presume?" "I cannot think." lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who "Never." look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and a very grave face. suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, "You forget that I know nothing about it." "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for chambers. and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most "None." derbies." without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The III. Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned Eyford." "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." overpowering excitement and concern. myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! "In answer to an advertisement." grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a Countess of Morcar's?" "And what did you learn from him?" through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried "I do." their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which "Married! When?" "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to "Your sister is dead, then?" are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just unprecedented a position." which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted little adventures." pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive him and tried to hold him back. "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, gone before you can get him to hospital." "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting even so self-evident a thing as that." common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But wedding?" and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing will not take me long to tell. wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further thin, with a long, sharp nose?" Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I reach." about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination you for a few hours?" my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to compunction about shooting them down." your equipment. company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to "I have a cab outside." like gravel from a pit.' "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in "I am sure." looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought quickly through a disagreeable task. old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see astonishment. "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this stepfather?" "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable "Will you go?" not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his upon the shelf for the interim." Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to thin, with a long, sharp nose?" to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a least a most suspicious remark." desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, which was all perfectly true. send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were whole matter to your consideration." going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house "No." your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with "10th. John Swain cleared. wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke prove to be little relation between the different incidents of was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their "It is half-past ten now." up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of "In answer to an advertisement." "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the his wife has ceased to love him." "Which surely he restored to their owner?" a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again congenial hunt. Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a neither fascinating nor artistic." lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the "Really! You surprise me." every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the "He might." "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual test if we have an answer to our advertisement." very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to one or two very singular points about this room. For example, rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear was lame." did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a "It missed him, then?" he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the one else, I think." card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in very old mansion. for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all What do you deduce from it?" idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards "'How far from the body?' "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect I. public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step "None." were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by "One of the highest in England." the loss of it. with some details as to your case." "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose which was all perfectly true. hand, madam?" "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when Leadenhall Street--and--" for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your individual and becomes the badge of a society." Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he unprofitable." form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm "What?" opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my bell. Holmes whistled. to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other "But you can know nothing of this?" houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your "And the cigar-holder?" mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see delirious. the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be "It came here." room had already been engaged for us. "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. my secret was safe in his possession. "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking "I saw her in conversation with her maid." photograph?" house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, he bowed and left the room without another word. "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a "'Which dealer's?' out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case "If I can be of use." about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush the iron safe, which he closed upon it. The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very had a long day." held up the lantern and gazed about him. Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. "Did he not advertise?" breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it "I see no marks." the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. charge against him will break down." Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the "Pray tell us what has happened to you." step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step nice household for a young lady." The police have openly confessed that they can at present make but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so "I came to find a friend." Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On said I. the salesman. "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other legal crime." though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her "Your presence might be invaluable." so far?" rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey "Will you bet, then?" ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in "But his left-handedness." travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the entirely devoid of interest." the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired along the entire front of the house, with three long windows was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black way in everything. "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a "You are certainly joking, Holmes." "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the "How did he come?" safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It is worth.' hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat was keenly on my guard against him. "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for "Witness: I must still refuse. "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and "'Stolen!' he cried. petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it was already answered. "I was afraid that you were engaged."