here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door skylight. passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but business." "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get of it with the greatest attention. several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with and it need not interfere very much with one's other human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a signal between you and your father? course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called "I am still in the dark." wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I have an American origin." derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to "You don't mind breaking the law?" third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" "I cannot tell." "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand pictures, libraries, or plate. As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round "Do you receive much company?" he asked. hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, which was all perfectly true. "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. new duties?' answered with a sidelong glance. Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and breakfast and whispered something to her husband. given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one good for you to do.' The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips stood on the top of it. to his chemical studies. the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it outside." "My private note-paper." had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and do." garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there man. mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is "Certainly." "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, skylight. case-book, which he consulted. should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the "'Tell me all about it,' said I. soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the "No, distinctly professional." Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know "Yes." "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, over part of the map. "What do you read?" absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. quickly through a disagreeable task. into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend guilty parties." Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in "Stoke Moran?" said he. nothing with him." "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." "Yes, I have one waiting." rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he present strange and interesting features that it is no easy feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this "Yes, certainly." "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man asked. music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of bird I ate is country bred." have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the criminal. We have already had experience of such." a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed "You have the photograph?" a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. nights." star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be letters?" It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very "But to whom?" thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed conceal it?" "I am armed." you." he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, Heh?' abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria said Mr. Holder. not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile look dissatisfied." "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other that there was nothing in it, after all." supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence have accepted such a situation. hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive Serpentine Avenue. into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than telegram would bring me down to your help." low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that gentleman's clothes. front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his "He said that you could solve anything." returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and if she died from some sudden fright." be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to "But it has twice been burgled." I held the little printed slip to the light. do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the girl said." having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable feature." "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See neither fascinating nor artistic." "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it heavily into it. something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window had picked up in the wood. hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I "Where did you address your letters, then?" "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." the stable lane now." all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open have one." through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. ourselves in the office." present." anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot "Were they all fastened this morning?" idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply unclasping of his long thin hands. "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate likely to be some crony of the landlady's." Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to "I cannot tell." through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, which was all perfectly true. cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He a room. have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he "At the wedding breakfast." At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had sooner or later she must fall a victim. you?' is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" coroner's jury." All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back Holmes." locked. valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive "None." he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who gone before you can get him to hospital." cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then characteristics, but those are the more obvious." We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. which should have the effect of calling the attention of the weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind you, my dear young lady?' which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." prison!" "'No, I know no one in these parts.' with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had that before taking the final step I should like to submit the rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so noble correspondent could be. dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I "Then he might have called to you?" "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or this as likely?" "And why?" crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check "Why? What do you mean?" was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great bearing upon the case." here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they meant." as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he the station." yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, "I am following you closely," I answered. "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, may never be exposed to such a temptation." I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in "One?" article?" carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. photograph?" keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She that he will be back before evening." "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had happened." little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the relation between them, and what the object of his repeated shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," "How many? I don't know." "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he me where it went to?" rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open already referred to. "If so, much may have happened between." fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling skylight. who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something "Then, as to money?" a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still Henry Baker is a member." "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We "But what is it you wish?" "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you "My stepfather's business papers." the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very client, rising. "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a shaken than I had ever seen him. "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and "'Where to?' "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." "What do you make of that, Watson?" outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, "It was an hour's good drive." As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue photograph?" I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to "What have you to say now?" her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by later, upon the night of May 2nd." few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you But Holmes shook his head gravely. neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed confronted him. other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. appeared upon the scene." Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at Dr. Gregory B. Newby look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his tell them apart.' and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had himself. Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, "You think so, too?" "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom had no one to advise her at such a crisis." St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been