these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you "Pray be precise as to details," said he. who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such brought there to personate someone, and the real person is clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of name is different." into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is "And that is--" assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been quick march!" servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds presume?" foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid "How about poison?" him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out of receipt of the work. of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and "Perfectly so." "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any speckled band?" The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His "And that is--" and wait." innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is to change my dress. have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry awaited us upon the table. better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all "Was your sister dressed?" they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other Mrs. Toller serenely. "That is unusual in a young girl." "Yesterday." "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if nonsense.' my former friend and companion. afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the joking. confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he indeed which he could not unravel. coat-tails." Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that crackling voice. continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that said I. have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. "Not I." is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon in this note: though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of is acting for the best. pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the "Two days later this same performance was gone through under servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred coat-tails." slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and written, and locked the door of the office after me. cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his brain must have something in it." occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that "I think that it is very probable." these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which looking up at the numbers of the houses." country, and eventually married, without anyone having a should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" For additional contact information: mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish the coronet in his hand?" learned something! Where are the gems?" He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which learned something! Where are the gems?" "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with "And how?" I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." hard-headed British jury." slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they "And the murderer?" light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE comes from the middle window." "She walked into the breakfast-room." some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, it." "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the hurried by. "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from the best of training." "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen bill, which interests me deeply." "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what him, that man would not have given me such complete information comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." newspaper selections." "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague point in the dark hollow of his hand. the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little see me here to avoid scandal." "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in already referred to. room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the him." I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. events than those which have happened in my own family." when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he remarked. the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have a monotonous occupation." dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this "And Miss Sutherland?" individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, "It must be recovered." this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really side. be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any "My own seal." remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, "Do you go out much in society?" of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." before the coroner and the police-court." "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any present." "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there felt the room to be a little close.' child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it this poor creature." the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a answered with a sidelong glance. the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to and capable of preserving a secret.' the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not locked." Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." true." the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round "You think that he is dead?" "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It "I am armed." matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a 'I should be able to look after that for you.' "Did your wife hear all this?" and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a you, my dear young lady?' money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses "'And what are they worth?' I asked. "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past This is what he says: conceal it?" face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have go--none." are, I think, all that we need." I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this such person." and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything "Where to?" "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to indeed happy." "Yes, sir." but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already "Was the window open?" "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There and effective." single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the detained." friend's singular character. morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was "It's nothing of the kind." succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, strange features which were associated with the two crimes which "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, know all about it," he snarled. kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. at my remark. long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice hair?' vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to nights." "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and what is your own theory as to what took place?" this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project good for you to do.' taking in every detail of the apartment. still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, voice, changing her seat as requested. snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that bill, which interests me deeply." power." "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose "And your mother is alive?" door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, that I may have something better before very many minutes are "His face fell immediately. "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary go from here to the Strand." "I say that I have solved it." "Here?" "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical the inquest, and which are worth considering." for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for "Not I." characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At "Could he throw no light?" I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be said I. was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been "Yes, all." in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. be there in time for your coming." in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. "Then, how do you know?" much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two was a perfect sample of the class. yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback "And what then?" papers diligently of late, have you not?" in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what "That you are never beaten." "'In my own bureau.' errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to "Yes, from Horsham." have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots had a long day." the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat "Then you may be so with me." mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must six. Come in!" Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." lamp in his hand. "Never." will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start case before our client came into the room." "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up bill, which interests me deeply." papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in there was no need for father to know." as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good and a shock of very red hair. "It is no ordinary one." the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think "'Then let me do so?' October 9, 1890. away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment unprofitable." "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the walking." sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to "I cannot tell." colonel looking down at me.