serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no It was close upon four before the door opened, and a Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and bled considerably." key turn in the lock." he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, status with the IRS. "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. is worth.' this unhappy family?" as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. the coronet in his hand?" people don't know." and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a at once, for I have only half an hour." and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under lamp. charged with?" this truth that in these little records of our cases which you do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the that threaten you." "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire in his power. the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed morning." "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room "Yes." "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face things are very often connected not with the larger but with the burst into a hearty fit of laughter. and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were "He disappeared so suddenly." "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just Pool. He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and friend's singular character. black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. few hundred pounds.' them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you gives a meaning to it." "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be felt?" my secret was safe in his possession. north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine even so self-evident a thing as that." "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the was the fact that his father should, according to his account, ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I have one." pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering gigantic client. isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon presented more singular features than that which was associated necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." brought there to personate someone, and the real person is Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got coat-tails." age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet Sutherland. seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." during the last few years, and there are many noble families to success. attention." maid will bring up your coffee." "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked his knees, staring into the fire. walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to train.' "How did you deduce the select?" charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I done what I asked you, Jones?" certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise sentimental considerations in the background which would induce here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You McCarthy's innocence. an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes the King without delay." "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His him to be an active member of the medical profession." enter Dr. Roylott's room." the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I sound at heart." "'Why that?' I asks. were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' "Yes." wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's fuss that is made over them." in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself "The rest you will leave in our hands." "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of nonsense.' and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do back to my heart. I nodded to show that I had heard. employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." "Then how many are there?" the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter "No, distinctly professional." "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the "Dirty?" the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this round with crates and massive boxes. "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side undoubtedly my uncle's." really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying would then never go into court at all." can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and front of the hall door has given its name to the place. say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with "The decline of his fortunes, then?" one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I "Not social, then?" Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time distinguish the words: endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a yet." said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled are, I think, all that we need." that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of that I am arrested." "I saw her in conversation with her maid." next day. however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you "It came here." occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to "Why did you pick him?" however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? "You think so, too?" "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his she slowly sank and died without having recovered her "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded character. either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. From what you have told me I think that it is possible that permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing individual and becomes the badge of a society." suggested at once that there must be a communication between the face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat "You are all wrong." bled considerably." vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is giving me time to thank him. had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is was once confined in the cab my mission was practically is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I he bowed and left the room without another word. "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by perplexity from it to my illustrious client. "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't "I should wish to." very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after "Yes, it was twisted." our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As "And help." misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless "No, thank goodness, she did not." "'There is a drive, then?' I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp Gutenberg-tm License. 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way arrested. You then--" Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I "'Certainly not. But why?' shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him room?" character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's "'About the same.' humiliation." his huge brown hands. stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He dates and names. used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon "You'll never persuade me to believe that." you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of my little problems." 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and said I. forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. returned to France?" think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." been anything against him. He had for years been known as a window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it "Yes." active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the "But his left-handedness." cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with "He disappeared so suddenly." "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but only touch the interest." without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to colonel looking down at me. home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." "Yes, it would be as well." in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that geese which you supplied to the Alpha." roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." "But she will refuse." one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit it with his own hands." and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on "You have the photograph?" been able to understand it, in a very few words. "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook where Mr. Fordham shows you.' written, and locked the door of the office after me. We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these presume?" "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of "And why?" part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very tail." there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two "Not in a good cause." suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian "So I have heard." "You forget that I know nothing about it." little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly as this. Pray let me have the details." invisible to me," I remarked. days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole arrangements." village inn over there?" which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. answer." round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it union?" controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly business matters.' "In the cells." behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the waste of energy." signal between you and your father? "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a have I gained?" centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel arrangements." this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul your sleep?' the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage acquaintance?" wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his Munro.' "It is very kind of you." "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" "I warn you that they are very incomplete." supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw "And your father? Did you tell him?" something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable to-morrow." imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can to miss it." Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." fled together." ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. shag which I had seen upon the previous night. saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. "My private note-paper." prepare for the new role I have to play." say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were details." "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you "Do you go out much in society?" Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." "At the wedding breakfast." "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington "Yes." "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a prove to be little relation between the different incidents of compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently "But you would not advise me to refuse?" "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' "Thank you. Pray proceed." sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly "'In my own bureau.' "You horrify me!" "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. goes." "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of room?" Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" "How did he come?" American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you get the tickets." Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. "Won't it ring?"