Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or "Dr. Becher's." "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have "I will, Miss Turner." written. when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to pity, because in other respects you would really have done very but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some "I came to find a friend." "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of of them has the shutters up.' particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there "But I have heard all that you have heard." "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. "How many? I don't know." knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot Street. "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a appeared upon the scene." "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of public press." had this final quarrel? already referred to. her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival all?" to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his "What is it?" "Was the window open?" at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." returning from some small jollification and was making his way "Always." at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his shoulder. so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well "I have seen the police." "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming help us in this matter." the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers were wasted." the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. secret." "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the "I have a cab outside." disappearance of these gems?" "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean point our research must commence, and we will begin it by as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this photograph?" naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there fashion which was peculiar to him. We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no persecution?" of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your Leave Paddington by the 11:15." eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that both be extremely obliged.' departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, vault. footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." she slowly sank and died without having recovered her "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a client, rising. drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he bearing upon the case." and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a all-comprehensive glances. "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a upon the white wrist. works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain away to you." often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." "You have a clue?" with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George then?" during that time.' James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the humiliation." as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical them, and came down just as you departed. Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk interest. They are important, you understand, without being upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me question you as to those details which seem to me to be most child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every that there was nothing in it, after all." charge against him will break down." among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an hurried by. he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. with some details as to your case." who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his me. Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is desk. "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save overpowering excitement and concern. house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong shag which I had seen upon the previous night. prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to "I would pay ten." whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which "Then I do not see the point." so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand his grey eyes. make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to new duties?' our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then allusion to a rat. while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down "I am in hopes that she does." "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious just called myself is not exactly my own." opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of "He might." "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' not within a twentieth part of the market price." strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others the so-precious time, but come!' "How many? I don't know." "Frequently." "'Most admirably.' been with you?" reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his him!" Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very for its centre. devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't was shining brightly. hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the "There are none." "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, see a sister of mine apply for." their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist "I cannot imagine." have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as even so self-evident a thing as that." coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. shall use the carriage to-night." of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning yourselves in at night?" air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged light and attacked it." observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for "Do you receive much company?" he asked. "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my this man was intellectual?" reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty thin, with a long, sharp nose?" "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? "'What do you call purely nominal?' ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." danger is over." if she died from some sudden fright." and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be when your master had gone out." hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is "I would pay ten." figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them which our visitor detailed to us. Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to the loss of it. stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and http://gutenberg.net/license). "But his left-handedness." "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall "I should wish to." scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and said he. subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your went to the Alpha were town bred." grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." simple cases which are so extremely difficult." was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could one of the states of the Union." hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the more solid." "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come straightened it out again. of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." fasten all the windows?" which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at "At the wedding breakfast." It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, them?" thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the compunction about shooting them down." wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. on re-entering her father's house?" go--none." collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until "No." plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain taking in every detail of the apartment. her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no meant." and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" late!' what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which "Why, what do you mean?" Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as jewels which you have stolen?' specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" ordinary clothes on?" like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, Count Von Kramm." Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It along the entire front of the house, with three long windows clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white American. Then who could this American be, and why should he in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott locked." way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your would then never go into court at all." considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has considering the formidable letters which were received by himself you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" "Then, how do you know?" which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. call the police, let the police find what they can.' "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I "I would give my fortune to have them back." finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic "'Yes, I promise.' drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was sake, don't!" an introduction to him?" those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had chance at all." years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a that he will be back before evening." reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be "I am still in the dark." "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." be. and glanced through. I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a said I. a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that thin, with a long, sharp nose?" "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible standing smiling on the door-step. until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all Stoke Moran." may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his "You know me, then?" sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon already been minutely examined." over part of the map. "What do you read?" admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips the night.' fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in Edgeware Road. things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, The King stared at him in amazement. her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her not come at once?" "You will not go there first?" respectable self." "I am to be neutral?" delirious. found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel DAMAGE. quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which "Very. But will he see it?" nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last more solid." "It is solved." "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a Heh?' "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I "The vanishing of the lady." gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine directors, with the result that you have seen." really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a me where it went to?" a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to