to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away occurred." "Yes, certainly." "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. "It must be recovered." peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the but preventing her from injuring another. more solid." much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the opened a pocket-book and took out a note. right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to call it cruel." A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence it means?" step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray "'Certainly not. But why?' grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to Dr. Gregory B. Newby "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a villagers almost as much as their master. "Her father is very rich?" carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but "I was certainly surprised to find you there." Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. "Yes." come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." "You were travelling in the States?" consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of you." "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project "Your sister is dead, then?" "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On room?" combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of "Upon what point?" ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises character. beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. hurried away. Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural "Then you may entirely rely on me." "And you can do nothing until then?" once more for Briony Lodge. remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." then?" front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no at a side door. "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to as noiselessly as she had come. grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought "I beg pardon." "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a soul! here is her carriage at the door." ventilator." reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in "No, finished." which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would himself. "I am still in the dark." myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very better in every way that they should make their position a little "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's public press." studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." "The Coroner: What do you mean? predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. "'Yes, it was gone.' to a light-house. their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, ago." "Not I." "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" this poor creature." equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight him nearly every evening." arrangements." was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the breakfast?" in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have ready to-morrow?' was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a "'What are you doing there?' he asked. galvanised. directors have had misgivings upon the subject." and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He used to be." "Stolen." little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some Leave Paddington by the 11:15." Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be "I came to find a friend." "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. call the police, let the police find what they can.' four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of "I say that I have solved it." advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" "At the wedding breakfast." Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as "The decline of his fortunes, then?" and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to matter over." an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from throat." yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is "Who by?" made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors "The doctor?" these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The and the church but not where the lady lived." The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that fashion which was peculiar to him. I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone been anything against him. He had for years been known as a "'It is locked up,' I answered. a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss think that he is innocent?" "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of next day. until night should bring an explanation. again on its way. mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of "Absolutely none." his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with "A thing like a cleaver," said he. in his hands." it." moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste crime." compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had presented which may be striking and bizarre without being had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from "Then how many are there?" Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any "But to whom?" Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just "My dear Holmes!" "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." page at http://pglaf.org "How did that help you?" walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger on in his house." fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent "They are typewritten," I remarked. although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the "Ah!" shaken than I had ever seen him. overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." "The King of Scandinavia." doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms investigation." "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it bird I ate is country bred." to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make there has been an enclosure here!" before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the your room." nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, people in all walks of life. about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the "'And the work?' "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in writers could invent nothing more crude." "That is possible." "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the forecastle of an emigrant ship. to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that "Pray do so." "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk of your young ladies.' Doctor, of the paper and the date." brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how "If so, much may have happened between." between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found "I shall be delighted." examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or "At the wedding breakfast." glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double your room." accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the there." your most interesting statement." place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been bill, which interests me deeply." first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" who was a member of your goose club." offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With the house with me." what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said "Not social, then?" dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been bell. Holmes whistled. of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and "We must sit without light. He would see it through the "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" will not take me long to tell. I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is were wasted." but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it that before taking the final step I should like to submit the Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the that you wished to speak to me?' individual and becomes the badge of a society." separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, "And I to find an enemy." which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He "That's no good." should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, money should be paid at once.' Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. the best of training." begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert colour had been driven from his face. say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper "You horrify me." locked." The summons was a brief and urgent one. "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you Surrey." "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that heavy and sharp instrument." asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days "And for present expenses?" what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in chance at all." "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very of the efforts of the United States government and of the better "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at never came back." magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." "At what time?" "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the comes from the middle window." the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to "A greater distance to travel." "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will IS already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third Cross for the Continent." "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his "That is unusual in a young girl." "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I of it with the greatest attention. with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." "And now?" I asked. lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" "I am armed." your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his "So it appears." on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been my room." I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at "The gentleman I describe." part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a think you a quite exceptional woman." dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, "I don't say that. Perhaps." Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of appeared upon the scene." my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. a little more before I quite committed myself. spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white child?' concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I quick march!" little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to "But who is he?" "Oh, yes, easily." however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his touch that coronet?' remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there "Was there a secret marriage?" glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. envelope. against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, "A client, then?" even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who any more." have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I be. family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me and wait." penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small "'Most admirably.' troubles have been weighing upon his mind. not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too