McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both "I was sure that I might rely on you." previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything question you as to those details which seem to me to be most the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" "Well, but China?" "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and the ceiling. "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is at a side door. which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in have been better. It is all right." Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One arrangements." floor. "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of outbreak?" not fit the lock." the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is his forehead." future lives." sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in business?" standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a shag which I had seen upon the previous night. have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, "What, then?" interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold "My dear Holmes!" Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock could gather together that I was able to avert another public "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have "Very well, sir. And this stone?" this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the of the efforts of the United States government and of the better from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is sufficient punishment." from you?" the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will 1.E.9. point in the dark hollow of his hand. of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, his face which made him a very different person to the round, with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door quick march!" Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith mysterious end." about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, opportunities to fix the problem. now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking look upon these things in a different way." Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either get the tickets." "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have "He might." endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards with you?" first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what "In what way?" asked Holmes. deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot whereabouts. flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after your Highness to the police-station?" prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and ran thus: legal crime." LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE "Has he come with you to-night?" pierced for earrings?" gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out my secret was safe in his possession. entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' simple cases which are so extremely difficult." redistribution. Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to shadow pass over his face as I spoke. and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any the address that was given us in the advertisement. "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End absolutely follow my advice in every respect." Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies "But she will refuse." the coroner come to?" But Holmes shook his head gravely. There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and "'You cannot say what it was?' and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of into the bag, and made for the door. your co-operation." said he at last. unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks way: old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress me what he had done with the three missing stones. in. face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has he. offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his most important business. It is probable that he will be away all Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with the one as in the other." morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to and effective." "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to to-morrow." leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, "Why serious?" yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at with some details as to your case." beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was Street. an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had very old mansion. which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this the King without delay." "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. "The Coroner: What do you mean? Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back "'What would be the hours?' I asked. criminal. We have already had experience of such." unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, to tackle the facts." gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and Munro.' We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' hair?' "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where "Precisely." feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to "Now, then, what's the last entry?" "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do past. dramatic, in fact." "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been "And what then?" of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the me. You must get home instantly and act." "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it his wife has ceased to love him." "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to "I say that I have solved it." rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." trifles." I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the "Eh? What was that?" during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, new acquaintance to Baker Street. grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let suddenly upon us." "Deserted you?" misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and "Precisely so. But how--" "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a in one or two places in England?' Again Holmes raved in the air. "What can you not understand?" profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was already been minutely examined." "'What would be the hours?' I asked. trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and little adventures." beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was better grown goose." foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and you give your casting vote to?" business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have shaken than I had ever seen him. past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at stalked out of the room. the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper upon the sideboard." mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." cup of tea. coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark you give your casting vote to?" nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive to you." visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its "'Certainly not.' "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," "I don't say that. Perhaps." never to learn it at all." "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, take the flies, but not before." from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through "To an end?" appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce both be extremely obliged.' "No, thank goodness, she did not." "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one your billet.' burst into a hearty fit of laughter. room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my were wasted." greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my she used." London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we "It goes to the housekeeper's room." her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to next day. out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely could gather together that I was able to avert another public off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with followed. But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little results." to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the later, upon the night of May 2nd." realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the drove away. stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup Doctor, of the paper and the date." not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I his huge brown hands. "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but "Just look it up, then." Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House "'It is locked up,' I answered. "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached them present such singular features as the strange train of "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" ashen face. so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by "Nothing." rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up "But you were on a friendly footing?" Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one "Yes." very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced "Then, how do you know?" paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would "But how could you guess what the motive was?" way in." I think that I could be of assistance to you." "I am to be neutral?" father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, "Where is it, then?" get the tickets." building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some thin, with a long, sharp nose?" not as remarkable as your advertisement." geese which you supplied to the Alpha." "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. up this clue while it is still hot." of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and useful material for showing traces. The double line a little clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." of the way of danger. out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming copied or distributed: very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in "Entirely." "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed "ARAT," I read. there in twenty minutes." we went to search for him, face downward in a little keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend certainly not very gracious." in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and "Yes, all." temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, noise which awoke you from your sleep?" "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family "Well, some hundreds of times."