were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is south, for the country is more deserted there." - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any standing smiling on the door-step. were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I "The vanishing of the lady." brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, "I am armed." "Yes." "Is he quiet?" It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after "Oh, the cause is excellent!" He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was this poor creature." examine." in him." There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send second window is the one that I jumped from." would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and and that he would see to anything that turned up. forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, affection." was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had I am not easy in my mind about them." This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. "At the wedding breakfast." paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my Henry Baker is a member." contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's situation." little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came had died away into the silence from which it rose. clanging. bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms subject to the trademark license, especially commercial "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was than to us. from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. made him keep the appointment." the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered geese which you supplied to the Alpha." prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that hands were tied in the matter. I went and saw him. At first, of just ask you whether you had heard it.' them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I appeared upon the scene." hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." third from London." speckled band?" "'Is purely nominal.' "I came to find a friend." might help us?" say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. visitors." "Which are?" here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, and the colonel ushered me in. black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was one which it was hard to resist. "Never to return." where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was was it brought him the coronet? "From his hat?" "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before The King stared at him in amazement. right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew depend upon my doing so.' the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited "'About the same.' someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in entirely devoid of interest." "I am following you closely," I answered. up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and "You forget that I know nothing about it." It was close upon four before the door opened, and a was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations likely to be some crony of the landlady's." "'Ample.' occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to invisible to me," I remarked. Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the official police." beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at touch that coronet?' "Really! You surprise me." affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly light and attacked it." yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric "Did your wife hear all this?" "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and "And for present expenses?" "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can "Never." His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips himself in a perplexing position. to have that photograph." eat it." "You heard nothing yourself last night?" "That also I could fathom." eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey guilty parties." nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose seen the man in the road." Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until and have this put in the evening papers." drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole "I was afraid that you were engaged." unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I Chief Executive and Director she used." "What will you say?" "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself The police have openly confessed that they can at present make the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But "What do you make of that, Watson?" ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round o'clock is it?" subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem to his chemical studies. Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the have been better. It is all right." name is different." remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not and the church but not where the lady lived." emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about it means?" more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her you." possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs letters?" "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler the inquest, and which are worth considering." I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, "How did you deduce the select?" "This photograph!" have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before My friend smiled. approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of a good hundred miles off by now." for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower "Nothing." overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly held up the lantern and gazed about him. elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home extraordinary contortions. reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots what do you think they found in the pockets?" logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." will find little credit to be gained out of this case." "Her father is very rich?" considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her fashion which was peculiar to him. were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the national property. I was determined that the law should have its danger is over." were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." vault. "Very murderous indeed." without a word or a look. besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to "Yes, he did." since then to throw any light upon what became of him." pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." "The knees of his trousers." Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be ashen face. served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those "Nor running a chance of arrest?" bachelor.' customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. case before our client came into the room." another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and business in the City. She little knew what. brain must have something in it." typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was "Your presence might be invaluable." to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from "I see no marks." they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the families. Now for the facts. "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He the warnings." for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria "I will do it." threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried the little opening for the ventilator is." my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already you, my dear young lady?' electronic works Young McCarthy must be got off, however." "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy forbidden door. and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those "Pray do so." "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the "But I have heard all that you have heard." Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes to that open window." "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which power." red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle completely overtopped every other consideration that we both Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed friends, not even his own brother. up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land weapon." "On the contrary, this is the right side." "I do." head. So long, then!" recall any case within my experience which looked at the first should be so warm over such a trifle." "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading and your relations to her." eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was case before our client came into the room." in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of morning." "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." read it out to me." "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." "I say it is." Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which detained." "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that said he. be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, "My Mary? Impossible!" take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short cigars in the box." had formerly been in part my own. lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. meanly of me." "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed sentimental considerations in the background which would induce His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of when your master had gone out." possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, Mrs. Toller serenely. might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it highroad, where all traces were lost. gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." official police." his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my considering the formidable letters which were received by himself To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. there!' All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" night.' said he. and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I horse could go." delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban