"Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. became a certainty. will not take me long to tell. Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that the Red-headed League." opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for "He said that you could solve anything." advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps house for five minutes.' work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a call the police, let the police find what they can.' husband's writing, madam." "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the his eyes and forehead. I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, business at Coburg Square is serious." my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was empty. morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a in your London, you will know that the office of the company is completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, business." carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his memory. and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. compunction about shooting them down." his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than digesting their breakfasts at home." in the port of London." to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing brought there to personate someone, and the real person is over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from "'I shall certainly be there.' face and glided from the room. impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand discontent upon his features. locked. up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall to a light-house. "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office easy-going way." sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads just called myself is not exactly my own." "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or place of silver." Holmes' room. hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her "How did he come?" as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all important." "Seven!" I answered. "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since chemical work which was so dear to him. obstinate." preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, gone. "9th. McCauley cleared. leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, I approached. have an American origin." he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and do you make of it all?" maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in man. "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some "Has he come with you to-night?" since then to throw any light upon what became of him." which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was "How many? I don't know." "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, But Holmes shook his head gravely. fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those is so. I know all about McCarthy." was the fact that his father should, according to his account, astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous October 9, 1890. desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed Literary Archive Foundation destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into said he. that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 do." which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during means taking possession of that which another person has a prior a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases cup of tea. I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, completely overtopped every other consideration that we both a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right Sutherland. erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is opened a pocket-book and took out a note. drove away. moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes "Yes, certainly." "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." the loss of it. He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, "No." eavesdroppers?' I approached. and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, Pope's Court. "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his "Stolen." happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, tied." studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at "Won't it ring?" "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is place no limit on the sum I may draw." bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may lectures into a series of tales." "She walked into the breakfast-room." the child." known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average it were putty." lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and hard-headed British jury." "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his tell me that you intended to go into harness." that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who during the last few years, and there are many noble families to understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we "It came here." for securing the situation." expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps "I should like to see him very much." "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, had this final quarrel? until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the "Look there!" said he. astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent carriage. It was a chestnut." 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a gone. comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could breakfast?" the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question "Which are?" Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." himself. "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the be best to do. making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our call for it in person on Monday morning.' - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over second window is the one that I jumped from." the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." "And Irene Adler?" right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. the best of training." that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the "Pray tell us what has happened to you." fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: "We have tried and failed." think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very "But the mystery?" Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows fasten all the windows?" "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis "It is solved." "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" as yours." "How on earth--" course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have children over to America with him, so that I found myself without It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with "What is it, then--a fire?" (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was and shall probably return to London by the evening train." "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which careless servant girl?" of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually 11:15.' India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood presented which may be striking and bizarre without being overpowering excitement and concern. "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I "Come in!" said Holmes. great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As his eyes and forehead. preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs have I gained?" 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have present strange and interesting features that it is no easy back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It rat could hardly pass through." bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, question," said Holmes, smiling. "Why, it's a dummy," said he. "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without brandy and water within his reach. Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have village inn over there?" "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest over here." should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." "By no means." "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down charge against him will break down." horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the "From his hat?" showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I nonsense.' envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the call you and give you the chance." such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. His smile broadened. "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and rat could hardly pass through." access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and "'Where could I find him?' I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps front of the hall door has given its name to the place. dramatic, in fact." the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock families. Now for the facts. singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the not within a twentieth part of the market price." and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up upon a handsome competence. of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of on in his house." "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but events than those which have happened in my own family." painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that mystery." of." mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon "She will not sell." and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was then?" of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness,