it right.' Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. "Were they all fastened this morning?" Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I "My last client of the sort was a king." should be taken.' The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no me upon any point which I do not make clear." passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." writers could invent nothing more crude." "What office?" Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been maid will bring up your coffee." miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from forecastle of an emigrant ship. jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their Holmes' thin, eager face. "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at "At half-wages, in fact." "In what way?" asked Holmes. "Not social, then?" but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can "Really! You surprise me." "9th. McCauley cleared. consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the "Nor running a chance of arrest?" unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, will be renamed. the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the the south-west, I see." you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE you give your casting vote to?" not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. "Did you become engaged then?" "Then I am your man." believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." the King without delay." in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. to have been novel and of interest." ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt when your master had gone out." as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through all-comprehensive glances. four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his a monotonous occupation." "Only as much as we can deduce." "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas III. there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the hour." "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of "And sit in the dark?" stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We could gather together that I was able to avert another public as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid never came back." colour had been driven from his face. presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no Henry Baker is a member." dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but "That is also quite modern," said the lady. and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house "Of what?" their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said the bottom.' Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City is," said he presently: "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, you understand?" "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock client, rising. been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their woman who has had her own way to make in the world. "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search "Well?" occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared eavesdroppers?' Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able her also." Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but morning." slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, hair?' and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural should be taken.' had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, "Absolutely?" eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, "'Why that?' I asks. his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has Eyford at 11:15.' eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' "The murder was done with it." night.' said he. results." could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of "Breckinridge is his name." have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present if I call to-morrow?" frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that which it had come upon my father." brought there to personate someone, and the real person is secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." "Who was the criminal, then?" keep the flames under. "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people few hundred pounds.' I think that I could be of assistance to you." the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to lids now and glanced across at his visitor. "But you can know nothing of this?" "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after pressing in one house as in another. Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of directors have had misgivings upon the subject." latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and chance." search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I thirty. say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety over here." The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." least a fellow-countryman. I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to get the tickets." as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are four million human beings all jostling each other within the against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" "What, then?" "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? of his shoulders. had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous "Why did you pick him?" luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat "'How far from the body?' "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such without a word or a look. this man was intellectual?" colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior you want, then?' maiden herself was most instructive." uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they national property. I was determined that the law should have its "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to "'There is a drive, then?' cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had public press." which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it "It was." they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be occurred." smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down his cane at the bell-pull. them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I way: The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at "To the police?" least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or "No, finished." down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that a very grave face. considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is beg that you will break it off." to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you The police have openly confessed that they can at present make lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was I nodded to show that I had heard. as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and reach." the Assizes." among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about your room." could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, for the market.' "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors child?' the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His "Did he not advertise?" "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" thin, with a long, sharp nose?" he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as the coronet in his hand?" good for you to do.' time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who the house with me." rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view "I assure you that I am in your hands." "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon "Well, it is a possible supposition." reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the "Can I be of assistance?" back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission it." mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. might have a private word with us. gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads down. flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his Count Von Kramm." more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been occurred." A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room whole matter to your consideration." alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin arms and began to sob in a high treble key. "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single McCarthy's innocence. "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The yourselves in at night?" confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and "Yes, all." vault. Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been late!' ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he used to be." "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, "'And the work?' handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should questioning and rather startled gaze. some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which Stoke Moran." years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a "No, I am descending." my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or any little problem which you may submit to me." "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all be sorry for having acted so harshly." in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon "Stolen, then." which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have "Which surely he restored to their owner?" after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. "The knees of his trousers." see me here to avoid scandal." something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with this Miss Turner." forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then outside. one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. "I am in hopes that she does." take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation kind enough to tell me what I should do." important." "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to "Where, then, is my wife?" at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing yourselves in at night?" the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is you give your casting vote to?" the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the papers." One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first "What?" window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the "You heard nothing yourself last night?" wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. against a man in the prime of life?" "And did you observe any change in her then?" printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" some terrible trap for her." standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be but preventing her from injuring another. breakfast?" and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in