happened." "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." burst into a hearty fit of laughter. "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and of Fenchurch Street." the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but "The knees of his trousers." bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the what is your own theory as to what took place?" "Look there!" said he. was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir chemical work which was so dear to him. have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the something of him before." "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 "But your client--" the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the it with his own hands." the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to a few minutes he said that it would be all right. "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom "Won't it ring?" the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of own family. Literary Archive Foundation Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should them?" infinite languor in his face. the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in "'Is 4 pounds a week.' utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small "So I am. Very much so." cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast 1.E.9. suspect him." the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two "'Yes, sir.' "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as grasp, he hurried from the room. especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you investigation." his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are about. "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more indiscretion." summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was know all about it," he snarled. "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master "Yes, it would be as well." Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, "He is dead," cried several voices. much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the that he will be back before evening." corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other held up the lantern and gazed about him. of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to to me. over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. "And it is--" astonishment. "No, distinctly professional." "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would "It is no ordinary one." "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, astonishment. "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, gives a meaning to it." them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some present." in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were "Deserted you?" exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the forehead. yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and "So I am. Very much so." penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight attention." with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. "I should be immensely obliged to you." them?" "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis "My own seal." "I am all attention, madam." severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem seven miles from Eyford Station.' Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a noble correspondent could be. "I assure you that I am in your hands." window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I exactly what you advise." "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a look upon these things in a different way." without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its drove away. neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you "Yes." because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." "But you have hopes?" dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its you understand?" "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to "I think that I had better go, Holmes." to a light-house. 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a "Why? What do you mean?" probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps is four-and-twenty." of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" "That also I could fathom." stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of "On your arm?" downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an "Very. But will he see it?" wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), "I see no marks." "Did your wife hear all this?" Heh?' hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." away into the river." round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of events, Mr. Windibank!" safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United to-night?' in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, "Ample." that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me train from Paddington which would bring you there at about "'What, the red-headed man?' fishes. merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done she has been waylaid. There has been no result." dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. "And for present expenses?" after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I their singular warning or token before them when starting upon To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his call for it in person on Monday morning.' he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it Does that suggest anything?" were wasted." "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an "Then I shall certainly come." "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my "Witness: I must still refuse. similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle bore every mark of being an average commonplace British "'Ample.' "But what is it you wish?" "The King of Scandinavia." incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she "How did you trace it, then?" thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact stammered. "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George indeed which he could not unravel. own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting Edgeware Road. and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since "Her father is very rich?" the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was points in connection with it which never have been, and probably done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. Heh?' wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE man. as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known "Was he the only applicant?" works. See paragraph 1.E below. Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, call it cruel." off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. in a very precise fashion." hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, invisible to me," I remarked. in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was success. "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because it." professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The "Then I do not see the point." purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day in. "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. fled together." "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send heavy and sharp instrument." soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that astonishment. "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who 1.E.9. "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, your equipment. prove to be little relation between the different incidents of the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. "Yes, certainly." in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his American. Then who could this American be, and why should he "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much had this final quarrel? array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. It may be so in this case, also." let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, it? Did I buy the geese off you?" step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the "To the police?" "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. whereabouts. papers on the sundial.'" Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was have had none more fantastic than this." astonishment. cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" "Really! You surprise me." companion. professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police constraint." glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on married her." Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his have had none more fantastic than this." "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. "The landlord of the Alpha." the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with "Perhaps I have." sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of pressing in one house as in another. "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a "A confidential servant?" "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his "No, but the enclosure is." at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both Have you good authority for what you say?" it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the before, for it was considerably after midnight. a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would was a lad." silent! Oh, he will be silent!' "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your bearing upon the case." over part of the map. "What do you read?" union?" "What, then?" "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which already referred to. have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed the coronet in his hands?" sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit is acting for the best. was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his and the whole place is in a blaze." man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, quickly through a disagreeable task. tear off another piece?' both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend sit on the left-hand side of the driver." should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who "'Never,' said I. ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those happened." "Well?" to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, down. "'Stolen!' he cried. purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. see a sister of mine apply for." be sorry for having acted so harshly." pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in "Look there!" said he. "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, use an arc-and-compass breastpin." down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone you." "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just good-night and bustled off upon her way. such person." middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the maid will bring up your coffee." father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the "I am to be neutral?" "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging "Do you know him?" "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here "Then I do not see the point." assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the "And how?" Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. "Very much so." have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been I. "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never