"He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out "I know where it is." as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. front of me. of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were shoulder. practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, weary and pale-looking. laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a might help us?" quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in knowledge of the world." The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not that the gas is not laid on in his house?" I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my lost nothing by them." the room while you explain this matter?" ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the thought that she would have been so carried away." police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the not, dad?" she asked. if I call to-morrow?" "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. "VIOLET HUNTER." sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a forbidden door. shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot nonsense.' And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his Young McCarthy must be got off, however." stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle "But I am all in the dark." "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble "It was an hour's good drive." sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she be best to do. glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A means taking possession of that which another person has a prior "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." "'Where to?' black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window III. that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my "But the mystery?" had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always companion. I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away "Precisely so. But how--" room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical about here speaks of his kindness to him." to tell." "You are all wrong." imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." happened." is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. some place of shelter and let the county police know what has are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. so.' "I shall be delighted." this truth that in these little records of our cases which you despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, "'Quite sure, dad.' James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a murdered man." news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've "But I have heard all that you have heard." bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I he bowed and left the room without another word. society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in hardly wander." down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled conclusions. exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged "Well?" noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right "Upon what point?" Cross for the Continent." perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was "Has he come with you to-night?" Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it dead, shall be safe with us." building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some "Bought." justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a "But the mystery?" young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he "Yes, all." down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which sufficient punishment." broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I frequently gained my first real insight into the character of "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every crime." From what you have told me I think that it is possible that detained." Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out at home. my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing his eyes and forehead. these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United into the room. accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when "I fear not." "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." "So I heard. You have him here?" dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, was not a bird to be seen there. wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the "Texas, I think." grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key call for protection in the marriage market, for the present the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. had formerly been in part my own. disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the "Then you may entirely rely on me." from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, together. find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone down in his armchair and closing his eyes. "It may not come to that," said Holmes. "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few name is different." "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At Pope's Court, Fleet Street." them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear crackling voice. its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two "Have you her photograph?" that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would one's self under obligations.' give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There "But I am all in the dark." moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I and glanced through. "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and it." If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification "You have it, sir, just as it happened." "Were they all fastened this morning?" analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the "The best possible." Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the is entirely a question of barometric pressure." Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or hurried by. "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about security.' Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? respectable self." he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was directly by questioning you." other, as fresh and trim as possible. For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was But Holmes shook his head gravely. temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my "Yes." signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about must compliment you." "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch him, that man would not have given me such complete information their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and which our visitor detailed to us. from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work late!' ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the conclusions. deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly "A thing like a cleaver," said he. "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; the very letters. But what is this written above them?' "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who beyond words. and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as must compliment you." morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to bird I ate is country bred." hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his carried out of court." "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of tail." populous neighbourhood." as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. your only hope of safety." of receipt of the work. 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' on in his house." "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so question. considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he to-night's adventure." had picked up in the wood. formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to "We must sit without light. He would see it through the carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the if only as a check to my own memory." streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The shoulder; "he's all right." from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building questioning and rather startled gaze. as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 get her out of the way." I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the the one as in the other." as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock "And Miss Sutherland?" saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers "Awake, Watson?" he asked. "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my "No, I think that I'll take it." this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced "She told me to ask you." his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that that before taking the final step I should like to submit the the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his "About a month then." the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side upon the white wrist. I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two it." to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been "Stolen." yards of it?' son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire "But how will you look?" over here." "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of himself to tell his story. "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. you in yours." "I never have." copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." "Yes, but only for you and me." Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my get her out of the way." The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend "Thank you. Pray proceed." attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece "It must be recovered." taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the "And how did you find out?" instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any about here speaks of his kindness to him." "Pray do so." been lifted and conveyed somewhere." the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of photograph?" "Entirely." half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." me, and I could not think that his explanation of the "Pray do so." the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the "Where to?" "The decline of his fortunes, then?" salesman. "I have come for advice." workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" of note-paper. It read in this fashion: