him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt the coronet in his hands?" who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, it." never came back." "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem "His face fell immediately. bearing upon the case." or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. "'A dozen yards or so.' "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, you in yours." "And how did he make his money?" from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the "It is true that I have been generally successful." Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly village inn over there?" whole matter to your consideration." rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing weapon." He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he out of this horrible affair." temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter knowledge of the world." to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another goes." all that?" gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a "Yes." us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a himself in a perplexing position. "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards "Thank you. And your address?" a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There has little to do with my story." years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She impression behind it as though a window had gently closed "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything extraordinary contortions. found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all "Yes, all." a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and "So I am. Very much so." "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can friends, not even his own brother. explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an "And why in hopes?" friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," "Not in a good cause." and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before intrusion of other matters." "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more heavy and sharp instrument." written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you lost his Christmas dinner." had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had "Dr. Becher's." And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one "How many? I don't know." he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the village inn over there?" heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between matter." gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, direction." faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at how narrow had been my escape. "'What would be the hours?' I asked. to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." said I. some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ who was a member of your goose club." the bottom.' could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind make me his representative both with the servants and with the voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There she might be summoned. room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting round with crates and massive boxes. "On your arm?" the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has "How on earth--" enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded prisoner's face. and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, a few minutes he said that it would be all right. "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray "From his hat?" upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was promised to bring home. relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I interested in these little problems, and since you are good "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales "Where, then, is my wife?" know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and this unhappy family?" the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about events than those which have happened in my own family." shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. "You will not go there first?" "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old mystery may be cleared along those lines." convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but whole matter to your consideration." "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of standing smiling on the door-step. "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" and wait." him. of this gang." a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old place, I think that there is good ground to think that the away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and "Come in!" said he. housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, so.' thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the "I cannot think." asked. while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given vague figure huddled up in the darkness. never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found notes," he said. the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that "She showed me, as I told you she would." of receipt of the work. trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." think that he is innocent?" Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the them?" already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to rat could hardly pass through." chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much "I was certainly surprised to find you there." the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, shoulder; "he's all right." come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he "Game for a morning drive?" hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said third from London." purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission here." branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a several quiet little villages up there." this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." "What do you mean?" preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless "Did you observe the colour?" address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." assist you in forming an opinion." observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go before, for it was considerably after midnight. I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he upon an income of about 60 pounds." which should have the effect of calling the attention of the in him." is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. "Where is it, then?" This is what he says: which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you "Why, it's a dummy," said he. daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing charged with?" "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I outside." end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect "I am all attention, madam." "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but or other trace. But how on earth--" to-night?" I asked. finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project "Why, what do you mean?" "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot already been minutely examined." so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser fasten all the windows?" for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is "How long did she speak to this Alice?" children over to America with him, so that I found myself without "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its the devil!" "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and "What then?" "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very "And why in hopes?" life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps some water from a caraffe. strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He "Yes." We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to o'clock is it?" beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at breakfast?" could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag had a long day." "I think that it is very probable." back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. good for you to do.' seen the man in the road." "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" and it need not interfere very much with one's other to go into your room and bar your shutters?" "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at "Come in!" said Holmes. paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side to that open window." plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your you." "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey shadow pass over his face as I spoke. slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! the King without delay." "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." have established a very serious case against the son of the "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I "No more words. Get out!" are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I noting anything else of interest. "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to the little opening for the ventilator is." home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' whether it answered to the description of any of their his cane at the bell-pull. There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much is acting for the best. But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, to have been novel and of interest." week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to "Yes." ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his voice, changing her seat as requested. the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a woman who has had her own way to make in the world. slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side it. to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See "The vanishing of the lady." combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to "But who is he?" approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One in one or two places in England?' "What are they?" deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong and the whole place is in a blaze." difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. "We have tried and failed." assist you in forming an opinion." the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that one which it was hard to resist. station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before presume?" dramatic, in fact." makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded "The Cedars?" "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere "What is it?" forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, "'Very good.' helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back you came in." from you?" "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very "Your sister is dead, then?"