are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of "I have hopes." before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us "Eh? What was that?" "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I "The landlord of the Alpha." and looked back. high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. have accepted such a situation. varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were conversation I have gathered that they have been married about "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." upon an income of about 60 pounds." desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to "But she could not love him." astonishment. Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses "He disappeared so suddenly." child?' connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had his face. "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; results." "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a your own bird, so if you wish--" "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, "Nothing." "But you were on a friendly footing?" "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled "Was he the only applicant?" "Perhaps I have." met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I the tragedy. his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done come either from the window or the door. My attention was forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. of the vacancies.' convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, important." "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend know what is wrong with it.' in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an him to be an active member of the medical profession." kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a dramatic, in fact." "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." "What?" collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the forecastle of an emigrant ship. clanging. had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you "My dear Holmes!" up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. may have an influence upon European history." digesting their breakfasts at home." opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut do you make of it all?" hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that "The rest you will leave in our hands." copied or distributed: "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. name is different." fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." "Very murderous indeed." "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. "I am to be neutral?" what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. corner of the building. leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable bearing upon the case." the King without delay." returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over "They are typewritten," I remarked. "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained bird of prey. as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a visitors." should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and the bed, and you in that chair." Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the you." fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said "Proceed, then." really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless them present such singular features as the strange train of suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there garden below. to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but "So I have heard." "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had gone before you can get him to hospital." answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. which I could not give. He asked for Alice. photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly even so self-evident a thing as that." of a light. brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that "But we can't all be." cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't were wasted." must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a "And from a noble client?" "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, there in twenty minutes." felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the "Not particularly." "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, my secret was safe in his possession. I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of man. corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord call the police, let the police find what they can.' "Witness: Nothing definite. some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. your co-operation." public press." attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a never will be, entirely cleared up. "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. meant." "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father where we are going." 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the long narrative. to miss it." dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant of the way of danger. "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark problems help me to do so." cost them two and thirty pounds." statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever "Perhaps we may make them less so." And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he room?" would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already before the coroner and the police-court." whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." business?" will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to there has been an enclosure here!" While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my "ARAT," I read. permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations to miss it." not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by generous with you in money matters.' who was a member of your goose club." "What is it, then--a fire?" in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long "She told me to ask you." bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in "We were both in the photograph." "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind or other trace. But how on earth--" "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at wedding?" the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. you." "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change this as likely?" I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and father's place of business?" "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who likely to be some crony of the landlady's." "'Not at all. I only doubt--' while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey wedding?" asked. "How do you know, then?" which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it least a most suspicious remark." black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not business in the City. She little knew what. "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking once more to my work. Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one "It is very clear." and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are know all about it," he snarled. "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, bled considerably." much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much "When did it break out?" some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" she has been waylaid. There has been no result." ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and "I warn you that they are very incomplete." nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very "I think that it is very probable." "So it appears." "Where did you address your letters, then?" an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business key turn in the lock." "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two "Yes, only one." shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there all-comprehensive glances. Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with "And Irene Adler?" eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties have had none more fantastic than this." creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered sooner or later she must fall a victim. be best to do. aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of photograph?" solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of John Swain, of St. Augustine. correct than the official force." "Come in!" said Holmes. Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon pound a week." a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. "Your French gold?" he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." "'Why that?' I asks. along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my Sutherland. someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight have got?" upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who "Then, how do you know?" "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little future lives." every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been "Oh, fresh and glossy." should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three stood on the top of it. "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were later, upon the night of May 2nd." "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of discontent upon his features. "Dirty?" were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle would then never go into court at all." round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own grasp, he hurried from the room. name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a "And what did you see?" in his hands." clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like "The doctor?" "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering "That is also quite modern," said the lady. was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer better grown goose." turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your him nearly every evening." "How are you getting on?" greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second point our research must commence, and we will begin it by "Why? What do you mean?" beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but me."