doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that "I will get her to show me." go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of you found me to-night--and running through the front room she preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of me. "I think that it is very probable." were new raised from a basin. fatally injured? the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable back alive. day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the "The King of Scandinavia." they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. Chief Executive and Director "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my round with crates and massive boxes. not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming "None." "Yes, at the mines." lamp in his hand. parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his something of him before." than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my "And why?" "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project the roots. which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a paper in the air. "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would "This concluded the examination of the witness." house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. "What then?" information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I appeared upon the scene." "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to bachelor.' you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that round with crates and massive boxes. "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, even of instruction." that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been the house with me." takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her "We must sit without light. He would see it through the corner of the building. dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his dates and names. passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not "And you can do nothing until then?" suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there or other trace. But how on earth--" had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he my former friend and companion. where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. past. had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the will not take me long to tell. disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know that he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly "Pray tell us what has happened to you." professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in article?" off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. "What I expected to see." as he folded up the epistle. liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. voice, changing her seat as requested. another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, "And the cigar-holder?" "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, the morning and make my own way in the world.' How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to was feeling which was the fattest.' and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" was used.' on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of Foundation and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." remarked. a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is "VIOLET HUNTER." upon an income of about 60 pounds." idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." or in danger--" first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite least a fellow-countryman. to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as "That sounds a little paradoxical." "I will, Miss Turner." saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to there were so many in the whole country as were brought together and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot "The doctor?" seen the man in the road." Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I "The rest you will leave in our hands." "This concluded the examination of the witness." knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, "You have but to name it." village inn over there?" and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, "One of the highest in England." these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, "Of what?" the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is "Not in the least." into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the residence of the great financier. "But his left-handedness." "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning "'As governess?' in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be "How do you know, then?" "But you have hopes?" line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense it were putty." came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he out of this horrible affair." To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a "You heard nothing yourself last night?" from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not the house with me." dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a little adventures." writing, and yet I know it well." Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder "At half-wages, in fact." parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case "Why, what do you mean?" "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he "How often?" of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." locked. bonnet, and went out." "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of Pope's Court, Fleet Street." "What do you make of that, Watson?" "Ah!" it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at out of this horrible affair." leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned that served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in maiden herself was most instructive." was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to is," said he presently: and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts unclasping of his long thin hands. of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? "He might." important." smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from advice." Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our the night.' in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at directors have had misgivings upon the subject." her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I look dissatisfied." complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At business?" "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time vault. the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. gone. "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you "And how have you succeeded?" in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I My friend smiled. "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would "But how did you gain them?" Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had "But who is he?" is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they the child." foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you "It is to him that this trophy belongs." Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as spare." upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with train from Paddington which would bring you there at about list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was one of them." My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. fashion which was peculiar to him. weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they colour had been driven from his face. therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. for and were ordered to this address. present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary train from Paddington which would bring you there at about Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in "I warn you that they are very incomplete." France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." "Then, how do you know?" "Yes." of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him details." month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed she to prove their authenticity?" Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or "You think so, too?" "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." "A client, then?" weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her "And I." week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four "You have carte blanche." of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. during which he might have communicated with his friend the Dr. Gregory B. Newby them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" allusion to a rat. him, that man would not have given me such complete information "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a me. have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. "'And what salary do you ask?' fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a sentimental considerations in the background which would induce "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; ashen face. but preventing her from injuring another. shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong "Certainly, madam." a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having simple cases which are so extremely difficult." "How did you deduce the select?" "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much both be extremely obliged.' compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, "Could he throw no light?" I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, "Do you receive much company?" he asked. was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the tell me that you intended to go into harness." wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to conceal it?" near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried "Oh, fresh and glossy." valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, "And that is--" engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." "Not I." you for a few hours?" himself. to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house "The Coroner: What do you mean? "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced questioning and rather startled gaze. anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate nights." you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were