into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and do you make of it all?" greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I everything which you would wish to know." surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the drawing your inferences." straighten it?" very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of triumphant cloud from his cigarette. dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade pound a week." "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second Leave Paddington by the 11:15." receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I politicians who had been sent down from the North. Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand something of him before." from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, constraint." of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest "But how will you look?" with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he walking." diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." "What then?" "'Ten to two.' leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and "Well, but China?" into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders yards of it?' He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with shoulder; "he's all right." me what he had done with the three missing stones. "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' enter into my head. By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the "It is very kind of you." "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." happened." outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent seven miles from Eyford Station.' Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had "Did you become engaged then?" the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works was it brought him the coronet? little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. heavily into it. plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer disturbance in my wife." "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw that he has suffered." morning." adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which "You have but to name it." wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or the little opening for the ventilator is." do you make of it all?" upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. "'No, I know no one in these parts.' going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood "Yes." you." the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said "And you don't know his address?" perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking individual and becomes the badge of a society." insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A have I gained?" this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is invisible to me," I remarked. A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive leave you to your papers for a little." his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to not personally threatened." reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting "It may not come to that," said Holmes. I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will what these perils are?" the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. "And what did you learn from him?" "Yes, but only for you and me." married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you "And why?" doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and "And how?" "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; at my own good fortune. who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads "You have carte blanche." knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found "How did that help you?" It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. "Yes, certainly." departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley to where he stood hid behind the curtain. been lifted and conveyed somewhere." away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact "What then?" "He might." "Of what day?" hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows you found me to-night--and running through the front room she more solid." "But how did you gain them?" impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate affection." conduct the inquiry." can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" will find little credit to be gained out of this case." hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. ashen face. Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number to take care of herself." indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the best detective that ever lived. or in danger--" signal between you and your father? suspect him." black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had pierced for earrings?" "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a hour." There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, "Your presence might be invaluable." have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of "Upon what point?" have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send know what is wrong with it.' "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must the station." sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced his knees, staring into the fire. turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop "That is also quite modern," said the lady. about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely points to suicide?" nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending "And how have you succeeded?" I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our Eyford." breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first always that they were such commands as a lady might with prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would his forehead." the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into "And you thought he was pulled back?" object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of "Really! You surprise me." "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, placed his cuttings. however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my "We must sit without light. He would see it through the description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" front of me. as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while subject to the trademark license, especially commercial sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in returning from some small jollification and was making his way occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." public press." Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to "But how could you guess what the motive was?" headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she answered with a sidelong glance. "I am in hopes that she does." views." innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect think you a quite exceptional woman." of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached "Did you become engaged then?" directors have had misgivings upon the subject." "Do you receive much company?" he asked. him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional "I would give my fortune to have them back." problems help me to do so." twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. may never be exposed to such a temptation." upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came "In the cells." crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, the ceiling. Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to "He slept on the premises." which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and to a light-house. "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the front of me. together. brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my colonel looking down at me. they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project fait accompli?" possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as never to learn it at all." I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of British peeress.'" suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out wanted for ourselves." "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was mystery!" although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage "I warn you that they are very incomplete." black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." "Seven!" I answered. "Have you it here?" "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen matter." unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three habit of advancing money.' breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is "ARAT," I read. one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for said I. we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right written. permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were "An accident, I presume?" As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his "And I to find an enemy." again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the placed his cuttings. there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever "He slept on the premises." "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." visitors." no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible and no precautions can guard against." neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up were unconscious?" was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with London for the present?" "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' "Did your wife hear all this?" new duties?' When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent that you saw all that I did." framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge matter." The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall without success. At last the little money which I had saved began her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." fasten all the windows?" that I am arrested." "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, "I fear not." me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he morning." the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a tell me that you intended to go into harness." forebodings. "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. knowledge of the world." had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some from the brougham. "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his children over to America with him, so that I found myself without perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over nonsense.' "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way learned something! Where are the gems?" "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch to surprise her." the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear in a friendly supper." the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of upon an income of about 60 pounds." moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you father's place of business?" veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it showing my impatience. "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" think you a quite exceptional woman." kind enough to tell me what I should do." have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." the Friday. Was it to be in church?" the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United directors, with the result that you have seen." half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several Stoke Moran." It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and "But the mystery?" Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited really the only notable feature about the thing." following enigmatical notices: whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no "It is to him that this trophy belongs." with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew never came back." "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the "I shall most certainly do so." collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to skylight. my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet Eyford at 11:15.' gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as cheerful." nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She "Why? What do you mean?" belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts "But it has twice been burgled." Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy "I am about to be married." his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will