the best of training." flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here tear off another piece?' rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an note?" possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." light and attacked it." quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I it." were wasted." "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he shadow pass over his face as I spoke. above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, do." Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural "My Mary? Impossible!" Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." "'You doubt its value?' he asked. Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the "I have my revolver," said I. happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from you want, then?' which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." room. nights." "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between "But how will you look?" his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it "Because he was handy and would come cheap." which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before "Do you go out much in society?" work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a "I cannot as yet see any connection." the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, "I see no marks." thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a there is a decided draught." the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several name is different." with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while ill-usage at the hands of fortune. side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told subject to the trademark license, especially commercial "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., ran thus: "I saw her in conversation with her maid." might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what he died? Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's wedding?" "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with fashion which was peculiar to him. extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that "And how?" the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. room had already been engaged for us. "It was an hour's good drive." postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which records." his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it really the only notable feature about the thing." "'You doubt its value?' he asked. abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater I have it here in my museum." object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, were wasted." pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we Street. ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. mystery!" the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away think, you have already met." superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon delighted to hear it," he said. zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. "You have a clue?" house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they maiden herself was most instructive." before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or "In which, sir?" "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the excitement. "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other the address that was given us in the advertisement. Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." "And Miss Sutherland?" time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a there when the Rucastles went away." or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you weapon." (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project voice, changing her seat as requested. "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and "BALLARAT." maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project "He disappeared so suddenly." and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as fluttered off among the others. on re-entering her father's house?" attention." "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or "A thing like a cleaver," said he. have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my meant it for the best. It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove "You have a clue?" affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." signal between you and your father? the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it directors have had misgivings upon the subject." a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, one else, I think." means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can had a long day." "The knees of his trousers." "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these "VIOLET HUNTER." towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I asked with his eyes open. that you can jump it.' greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows and effective." nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of lumber-room." leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is I approached. cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying were wasted." he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have hair?' dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously friends, not even his own brother. every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, at home. deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left "Seven!" I answered. woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly villagers almost as much as their master. "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do your most interesting statement." "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy better grown goose." interest. They are important, you understand, without being me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be "And from a noble client?" dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 "I answered that I had not. "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the this poor creature." "'About the same.' "None." "Yes." misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent means taking possession of that which another person has a prior several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his outbreak?" you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor what is your own theory as to what took place?" contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of "Precisely." Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for I took the paper from him and read as follows: "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just his face which made him a very different person to the round, opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and "I will do it." valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, "'Oh, no.' withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been silent! Oh, he will be silent!' resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a it." to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up more terrible than the truth. appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his them?" quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was better grown goose." received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the "No?" We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something that, and I came down." friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to with her." very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; as he remarks, very much against the son." "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate manager. upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would Foundation here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every "And what did you learn from him?" "Proceed, then." floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in DISSOLVED. the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able friends, not even his own brother. its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door to that open window." Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after posted to-day." experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only the night.' "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder miles off. the very letters. But what is this written above them?' along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora he bowed and left the room without another word. whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss status with the IRS. sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that returning from some small jollification and was making his way demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the without a word or a look. "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing even of instruction." "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, she might be summoned. 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be go--none." For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again "Has he come with you to-night?" figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from "You don't mind breaking the law?" had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the searched, without anything being found which could incriminate collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss "You have it, sir, just as it happened." take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further could not have written that. It is the German who is so laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley "Not social, then?" Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of careless servant girl?" "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." matter over." seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America tear off another piece?' "A thing like a cleaver," said he. had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man his face. have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and "To ruin me." serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before present." decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and "Indeed! Whose, then?" and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the Leave Paddington by the 11:15." typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small "What have you done?" asked Holmes. province." entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than point in the dark hollow of his hand. standing smiling on the door-step. silent! Oh, he will be silent!' outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming "You have a clue?" "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never go from here to the Strand." dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every