"'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend and wait." ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he "Did your wife hear all this?" 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice "'In my own bureau.' round and wave him away like that.' de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the go back?" and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. floor. down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single "Yes, from Horsham." this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big even of instruction." I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet "He disappeared so suddenly." when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other your only hope of safety." my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very 1.F. note?" bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains "Then how many are there?" he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he next day. crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge to a more successful conclusion." pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End "Perhaps I have." intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but "You think that he is dead?" "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done upon a handsome competence. you came in." cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but "Which surely he restored to their owner?" and that he would see to anything that turned up. hard-headed British jury." precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and time." were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I page at http://pglaf.org Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and fait accompli?" "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting "It surprised me." rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the with frightened eyes at his accuser. and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the "Why, it's a dummy," said he. chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which "Proceed, then." everything which you would wish to know." Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain bell. Holmes whistled. daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my she used." a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him "I beg pardon." conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your have had none more fantastic than this." ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of weigh very heavily upon my conscience." "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, "I will, Miss Turner." road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it IS red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest papers diligently of late, have you not?" his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a who was a member of your goose club." flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my deduce something from that?" "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying the bed, and you in that chair." wall." interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a what is your own theory as to what took place?" been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular more terrible than the truth. but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met overpowering excitement and concern. "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of will he say when he returns?" Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his round and wave him away like that.' exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell sofa. This way, please!" must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been the inner apartment." "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you jewels which you have stolen?' the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular him and tried to hold him back. the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly my secret was safe in his possession. better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. I took the paper from him and read as follows: had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to "You horrify me!" from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. "You don't mind breaking the law?" home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the as he folded up the epistle. "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the and no precautions can guard against." "I say it is." very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all beg that you will break it off." saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in "Yes. He waved his hands." upon an income of about 60 pounds." "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you bonnet, and went out." "Has he come with you to-night?" certainly not very gracious." then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" me have 200 pounds?' among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in page at http://pglaf.org "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so "I cannot tell." cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two DAMAGE. long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She him to be an active member of the medical profession." obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. "What, then?" had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you open." some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, IS "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS place no limit on the sum I may draw." "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of "Thank you. Pray proceed." eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" letters?" "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. characteristics, but those are the more obvious." We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of cigars in the box." "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his you in your example." Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else "Was your sister dressed?" locked. garden below. beg that you will break it off." commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it excitement. fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need "Where to?" There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need "This photograph!" from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is "Was he the only applicant?" had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS system of imprisonment?" "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the me upon any point which I do not make clear." neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I Pope's Court. do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a breakfast and whispered something to her husband. "The decline of his fortunes, then?" endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant papers." providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, mystery may be cleared along those lines." very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. shall use the carriage to-night." shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian the room while you explain this matter?" for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I "You were travelling in the States?" "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him "I say it is." "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide sneer upon his pale face. "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after standing smiling on the door-step. end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon Lee, in the county of Kent." Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, upon an income of about 60 pounds." that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is of note-paper. It read in this fashion: introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom "Oh, fresh and glossy." everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was knowledge of the world." call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of my former friend and companion. weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way empty. It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, "We were both in the photograph." figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door "Do you receive much company?" he asked. "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, intrusion of other matters." we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your swore that no one else had been in the front room during the is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which your room." myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for you." Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that confronted him. "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into to tackle the facts." "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am or other trace. But how on earth--" Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with bears upon the case?" "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to Mrs. Toller serenely. coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" "'I have already given you my word.' "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive Henry Baker is a member." centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. "And the cigar-holder?" pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he you." classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year tail." frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. you want, then?' clang of the bell. who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. stepfather?" "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little see me here to avoid scandal." first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads "Murdered?" "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own hair?' "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of Munro.' showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle look dissatisfied." Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies ran thus: the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. "Yes, sir." "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows "I answered that I had not. and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the depend upon your compliance." he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who if only as a check to my own memory." days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick,