outside. the date of his supposed suicide." "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger "Yes, there are nearly always some there." of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he not come at once?" introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are "And you don't know his address?" had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable I am not easy in my mind about them." "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" ventilator." remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said this remarkable episode. assist you in forming an opinion." "And help." habit of advancing money.' up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. "And now?" I asked. "You have it, sir, just as it happened." "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put Edgeware Road. little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you desk. hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black some place of shelter and let the county police know what has heavily into it. "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the "None." our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY that know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their children over to America with him, so that I found myself without It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, minor matters until to-morrow." "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as remarked. about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his "Yes, there are nearly always some there." of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be "Not in the least." two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew with some details as to your case." applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but "'Certainly,' I answered. inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, hurried by. "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert "'What do you call purely nominal?' had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the think that any burglar could have done. from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." a little more before I quite committed myself. we went to search for him, face downward in a little Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight friends, not even his own brother. "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would and the whole place is in a blaze." Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions like gravel from a pit.' should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of unclasping of his long thin hands. flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could "I think it very unlikely." "'And what are they worth?' I asked. think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature "Well?" "No." some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which digesting their breakfasts at home." rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his "Dark enough and sinister enough." "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he "To an end?" the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." are, I think, all that we need." He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is "He said that you could solve anything." to you." had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked sooner or later she must fall a victim. prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me clang of the bell. woman." Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of "We were both in the photograph." credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you if only as a check to my own memory." man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. upon an income of about 60 pounds." photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain he. closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their your billet.' Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas a good hundred miles off by now." his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as said he. matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six Cross for the Continent." the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," the house with me." "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter for and were ordered to this address. swore that no one else had been in the front room during the instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that all?" "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white round and wave him away like that.' States. delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how later, upon the night of May 2nd." came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. the inquest, and which are worth considering." would then never go into court at all." by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in perplexity from it to my illustrious client. deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend him and tried to hold him back. dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and "Why serious?" newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where south, for the country is more deserted there." it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the and I shall be with you presently." jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes "Perfectly so." of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." with you alone." Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' "Did your wife hear all this?" "Yes, but only for you and me." and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. "And that is--" furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it "'I have already given you my word.' evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag "No good news?" "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What in my life." shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is furiously. get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his bird I ate is country bred." imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line that you can jump it.' have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be gigantic client. all?" empty. Project Gutenberg-tm works. building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." papers on the sundial.'" other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to "And the cigar-holder?" "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." carriage. It was a chestnut." "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my of a light. Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more the room while you explain this matter?" approach us with offers to donate. a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his politicians who had been sent down from the North. cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads "9th. McCauley cleared. from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The "You saw the ventilator, too?" the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, as he remarks, very much against the son." upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I own family. you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on less than 26s. 4d. that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have "One horse?" interjected Holmes. His smile broadened. "Absolutely none." begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." "To an English lawyer named Norton." large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land carriage. It was a chestnut." comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when "'There is a drive, then?' "Upon what point?" more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the "No." "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the secret." say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already "One of his hands." lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had villagers almost as much as their master. "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am "Which surely he restored to their owner?" meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. him." "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" that I am arrested." completely overtopped every other consideration that we both in the dead of the night?' fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to imbecility!" he cried. be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of "The Coroner: What do you mean? We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." "Was she in good spirits?" "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was such person." weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident British peeress.'" "Her father is very rich?" "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a delighted to hear it," he said. although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a "And it is--" room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I for and were ordered to this address. "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." and have this put in the evening papers." and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, "To an English lawyer named Norton." hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently business matters.' since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense "Nothing?" and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the may have an influence upon European history." younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy Farm upon the left." "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive bird I ate is country bred." name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" "Then I do not see the point." see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a matter over." a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a "Certainly." "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the went to the Alpha were town bred." there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray some place of shelter and let the county police know what has "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of "I should wish to." greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, "Imitated." remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." in this way: through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, careless servant girl?" and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between easy-going way." again, where I was soon asleep. "But what will you do?" occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for