freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their "It goes to the housekeeper's room." correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to golden eyeglasses. outbreak?" in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and Farm upon the left." Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no this as likely?" visitors." bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of "She will not sell." "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." "But of what society?" burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and your billet.' order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do and put his glass in his pocket. last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered and effective." "In what way?" asked Holmes. clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be "And Irene Adler?" "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any "And what then?" reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." "'Is 4 pounds a week.' "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." so far?" been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had my room." had a long day." "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten papers." all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but writing, and yet I know it well." pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for "How do you know, then?" "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly shall not find me ungrateful." would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole "Why, what do you mean?" "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," "VIOLET HUNTER." the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of "Where is it, then?" his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, "And how?" "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and way in everything. "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? "Holmes, the busybody!" save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of foresight and the moral retrogression?" is entirely a question of barometric pressure." over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have infinite languor in his face. I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out said he at last. "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some "Perhaps we may make them less so." questionable one." happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful "But I have heard all that you have heard." "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after again on its way. American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so details." out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely open." graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from may never be exposed to such a temptation." here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of throat." afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt round with crates and massive boxes. rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward recover the gem." "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon "Pray do so." "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue bears upon the case?" fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. amused." were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the there in twenty minutes." the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. "In answer to an advertisement." "That you are never beaten." "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To prison!" "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. man. with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and "At the wedding breakfast." "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" was a perfect sample of the class. "'What are you doing there?' he asked. It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up been anything against him. He had for years been known as a have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in in the hope of finding them." more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his "What will you do, then?" believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to "I know where it is." time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. "Yes, it was twisted." "'I shall certainly be there.' likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by good for you to do.' "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up you in yours." "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her in his power. villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up works. fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she presented which may be striking and bizarre without being then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable "Yes." not within a twentieth part of the market price." "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she infinite languor in his face. "Yes." salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to business?" reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs "His face fell immediately. "How did he come?" occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be directors have had misgivings upon the subject." towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of "'You doubt its value?' he asked. "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed answer." ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime allusion to a rat. I think that I could be of assistance to you." You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are heavily into it. seven miles from Eyford Station.' side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend "Where, then?" 'I should be able to look after that for you.' of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw miles off. isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, "Seven!" I answered. be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have anything to do with the matter?" "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope "But his left-handedness." "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a fluttered off among the others. the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and chambers. "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. just ask you whether you had heard it.' has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." him to go away.' Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let "'Yes, sir.' McCarthy's innocence. anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" she has been waylaid. There has been no result." parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be in this note: make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they "Come in!" said Holmes. "Holmes, the busybody!" at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered "But we can't all be." in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so back to my heart. little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one whatever might befall. whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask sneer upon his pale face. subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, six. Come in!" wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we "But who is he?" Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we "My Mary? Impossible!" despaired of." "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked your own bird, so if you wish--" "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We "10th. John Swain cleared. "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the desk. "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate is entirely a question of barometric pressure." son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a "Nearly eleven." into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it of note-paper. It read in this fashion: instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the It may be so in this case, also." "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as "Was she in good spirits?" goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin "Imitated." comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." "I am still in the dark." retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, "That is possible." "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I "I see many objections to any such theory." Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. Chief Executive and Director it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the meant." was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were "My own seal." that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought call for it in person on Monday morning.' housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. in him." 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner three of the beryls in it, was missing. invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, prove to be little relation between the different incidents of "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could which we had just quitted. a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a some city in a dream. the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to woman." if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" shoulder; "he's all right." heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink Sholtos." "I am about to be married." the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. "Pray let us have it, for all that." "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. "Yes." part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in "'Is purely nominal.' question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony article?" fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose "Pray let us have it, for all that." now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of "She told me to ask you." phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a to-night?" I asked. figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey "But what will you do?" typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with unclasping of his long thin hands. advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two his cane at the bell-pull. but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while mystery." from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." "Could he throw no light?" Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in there were so many in the whole country as were brought together