of the efforts of the United States government and of the better remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of I approached. "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute a good hundred miles off by now." How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered "And the murderer?" after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow This is what he says: "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich outside. among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought "'What would be the hours?' I asked. "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and best detective that ever lived. detective. affair. a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers "By no means." "Ah, but I was recommended to you." Eyford at 11:15.' speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this "None. Neville wrote those words." that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was on re-entering her father's house?" Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' Serpentine Avenue. my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since is," said he presently: shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, for the market.' fire. You quite follow me?" St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to at home. "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, purpose equally well?" newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. "'Yes, I promise.' repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a "Has he come with you to-night?" saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying bill, which interests me deeply." Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, 1.E.9. "Tired-looking or fresh?" "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at place, I think that there is good ground to think that the another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not "But how could you guess what the motive was?" difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an directors, with the result that you have seen." corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke at my own good fortune. as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is the window, rose as we entered. "Yes." and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when cheerful." felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the reach." "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to "Did your wife hear all this?" accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it "'And what salary do you ask?' that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what waste of energy." Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who and looked back. We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can you." "I am following you closely," I answered. "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after window when the police appeared." state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to new acquaintance to Baker Street. not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. said I. fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon locked. prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' as yours." Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between "No." geese which you supplied to the Alpha." train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been you do it in twenty minutes!' "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." more solid." "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He through." a good hundred miles off by now." "'I shall certainly be there.' his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was "Precisely so. But how--" violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This of a light. we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know "At the wedding breakfast." and capable of preserving a secret.' had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I if she died from some sudden fright." as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to a very grave face. in your London, you will know that the office of the company is developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently "'Ample.' Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, "Deserted you?" Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. to miss it." past. he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and placed his cuttings. overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here me upon any point which I do not make clear." have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" to-night?" I asked. maiden herself was most instructive." started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, leave you to your papers for a little." throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman "Nothing." weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out begin with, and I had not got mine yet." way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had weighed down with some great anxiety. your own bird, so if you wish--" With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a "None." "They are typewritten," I remarked. "'Tell me all about it,' said I. since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use it means?" the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, "'Quite sure, dad.' "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it you in your example." without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little once more to my work. flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and "But we can't all be." servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to entirely devoid of interest." Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by "Get out!" said he. "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a "Oh, yes, easily." ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can obstinate." journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can "Dirty?" she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's legal crime." happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and and files of the old papers, following the future career of every The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down detained." out of this horrible affair." That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it emerged. It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my Sutherland?" "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance "Because he was handy and would come cheap." common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. the very letters. But what is this written above them?' loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young his wife has ceased to love him." steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, to tackle the facts." "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last "No, I think that I'll take it." quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, "Was there a secret marriage?" face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker unprecedented a position." With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a "And did you observe any change in her then?" "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always cigar and let me expound." to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not papers must be those that are destroyed.' his cane at the bell-pull. I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather overpowering excitement and concern. that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty "In the cells." William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, not use it unless it is absolutely needed." the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really awkward doing business with an alias." colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and furiously. have I gained?" touch that coronet?' "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who I have it here in my museum." any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and "'I have already given you my word.' than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my "It is possible." "Certainly." in your London, you will know that the office of the company is finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your her also." predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came over with notes and figures. "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about mystery!" turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of strode off upon his way. "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque legal crime." uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is heavily into it. there has been an enclosure here!" my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that him!" bill, which interests me deeply." my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon down in his armchair and closing his eyes. "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves "A call for help, you thought?" "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. "Do you receive much company?" he asked. finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as to-night?' to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of "But I am all in the dark." respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return eat it." washing it down with a long draught of water. "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I matters immensely." used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the "My stepfather's business papers." dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored I was concerned in it." unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know crowd. Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when "My stepfather's business papers." "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling leave you to your papers for a little." window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who "I have hopes." a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are