"'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to views." "Where did he live, then?" side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce shaken than I had ever seen him. fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, Miss Holder?" ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very "'Is 4 pounds a week.' devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the Street. noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of shadow pass over his face as I spoke. "'Which dealer's?' registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can "Yes." present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. "Quite so." "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a the general public were present, then?" "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that other, as fresh and trim as possible. before, for it was considerably after midnight. he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it "I guessed as much." when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her then?" "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to companion. in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" My friend smiled. Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for arms and began to sob in a high treble key. "Yes, but only for you and me." is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the Leave Paddington by the 11:15." Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your Henry Baker is a member." with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business "Awake, Watson?" he asked. highroad, where all traces were lost. this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with question," said Holmes, smiling. London for the present?" would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared "Stoke Moran?" said he. even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and carried out of court." I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." think that he is innocent?" fasten all the windows?" bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to thin, with a long, sharp nose?" "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." "My last client of the sort was a king." "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same The note was undated, and without either signature or address. copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat had this final quarrel? was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to imbecility!" he cried. down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his "No sign of it?" always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say "Yesterday." younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' that?' The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally not personally threatened." purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon useful material for showing traces. The double line a little "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." open." Foundation Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what "But the mystery?" something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. interested in these little problems, and since you are good and the church but not where the lady lived." gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that floor. "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was fasten all the windows?" Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the nonsense.' distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been giving me time to thank him. "What will you say?" the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching which are rolled in Rotterdam." leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled him." Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and the best of training." my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, "And that is--" It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you in one or two places in England?' the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at McCarthy's innocence. bare slabs of marble. "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. feature." a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have legal crime." For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to the driver. flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and my room." careless servant girl?" my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to new acquaintance to Baker Street. "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare infinite languor in his face. INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and door?" "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very good for you to do.' looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square highly," said Holmes. "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature the general public were present, then?" "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an "Could he throw no light?" how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William "It is possible." Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a "I fear not." "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated chamber." without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some "Upon what point?" certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination "Then I do not see the point." I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him gigantic client. "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend brandy and water within his reach. The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I "Stolen." with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I "'I have heard so.' he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally 1.E.9. without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss "It is possible." the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with tied." ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he "No." "What!" he roared. "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal was feeling which was the fattest.' crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off "He is dead," cried several voices. the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." "But of what society?" of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will have one." "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. of the vacancies.' freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless house for five minutes.' observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most "But it has twice been burgled." rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which "Look there!" said he. of the efforts of the United States government and of the better found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, "I think that I had better go, Holmes." huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall little adventures." much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission you." his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." I have it here in my museum." The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but Doctor, of the paper and the date." last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number "At half-wages, in fact." having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." begun to whiten, even as mine has." union?" on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a invisible to me," I remarked. "That is not always so easy." heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as minor matters until to-morrow." Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been examination of the premises, but without finding anything which Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an his knees, staring into the fire. way: nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I "Yes, all." tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door "'Where to?' eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." obstinate." after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, his fortune, and I went back to pa. affair. follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his footfalls from the street. comes from the middle window." "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he province." could gather together that I was able to avert another public Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable and put his glass in his pocket. "Thank you. And your address?" tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There do.' upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect "And what did you learn from him?" remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you "And why in hopes?" these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was interest. They are important, you understand, without being the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of fashion which was peculiar to him. "And your mother is alive?" "Not him." hard-headed British jury." "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. present strange and interesting features that it is no easy central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There "Yes." "I have my revolver," said I. decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your my secret was safe in his possession. little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged in this note: adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, "Look there!" said he. remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the "I do." pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a introspective fashion. yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," "Which surely he restored to their owner?" The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do you for a few hours?" gone. the stable lane now." often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, fattened it expressly for you.' "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in have not had my rubber." morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and in the dead of the night?' "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. wall." matters immensely." "'Yes.' us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's figure." child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years,