enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The she has been waylaid. There has been no result." gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend "It is true that I have been generally successful." accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. his face. "So I am. Very much so." "Yes, certainly." weapon." and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case I. and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its was keenly on my guard against him. "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up "What will you do, then?" owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the Sholtos." fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot and laid it on the table. form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings "A client, then?" "Certainly." without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of and that he would see to anything that turned up. stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which even so self-evident a thing as that." spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it "But to whom?" too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. golden eyeglasses. golden eyeglasses. her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a "I don't say that. Perhaps." which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He was it brought him the coronet? sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. which was all perfectly true. "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the "No." "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. "Game for a morning drive?" wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no with the outside air!" you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered your most interesting statement." drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of But Holmes shook his head gravely. Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but Surrey." confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too "'No, I know no one in these parts.' truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I Arthur Conan Doyle the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the it? Did I buy the geese off you?" help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might easy-going way." sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would "Here?" even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name of the way of danger. to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, feature." other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My "Perhaps I have." man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and sofa. This way, please!" his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, information in his hands the value of which he did not himself Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given of note-paper. It read in this fashion: I shall continue with my miserable story. "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now "Stolen, then." faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it train.' donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged good for you to do.' which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. province." commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be present." so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself "It is very clear." morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the several quiet little villages up there." "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and nothing with him." very morning of my second wedding." American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and during the last few years, and there are many noble families to other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police careless servant girl?" "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? washing it down with a long draught of water. "He is still with you, I presume?" in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug hands. 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I completely overtopped every other consideration that we both fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause horse could go." and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers "Absolutely none." peculiar to him. "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" my former friend and companion. crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the your co-operation." said I. him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can "How did that help you?" "But how?" It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. be sorry for having acted so harshly." thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an forecastle of an emigrant ship. "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, "We have tried and failed." there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for think that he is innocent?" might help us?" the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had III. sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. upon the sideboard." it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we place, I think that there is good ground to think that the And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The amused." that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its in a very precise fashion." one's self under obligations.' For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a could gather together that I was able to avert another public clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY question. at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and "But to whom?" in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew murdered man." without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so "And how did you verify them?" "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the "In which, sir?" assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided kindly on the shoulder. "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. amused." a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other that threaten you." (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and any." him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you "He disappeared so suddenly." lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." Eyford." the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall murdered man." Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his "His face fell immediately. hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming "And it is--" had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the "What then?" could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, I took the paper from him and read as follows: continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." he bowed and left the room without another word. "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" them present such singular features as the strange train of "Won't it ring?" instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to "'How far from the body?' recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face "Have you it here?" a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have opened a pocket-book and took out a note. IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery "And is that all?" "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than "Yes." now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. at my remark. forecastle of an emigrant ship. wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had system of imprisonment?" to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to thin legs towards the fire. "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving "I will do it." awaited us upon the table. "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have points in connection with it which never have been, and probably many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias other lovers by making love himself." cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just http://www.gutenberg.net murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." point our research must commence, and we will begin it by "I have a cab outside." the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away "This concluded the examination of the witness." loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." place, I think that there is good ground to think that the snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with as yours." cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and orange pips. case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my to that open window." feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider invisible to me," I remarked. name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and "But how?" "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, "Then I am your man." Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." For additional contact information: and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered "And it is--" habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." time." metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly something of him before." repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the "No." pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming away into the river." of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an ways including including checks, online payments and credit card memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me fasten all the windows?" important." direction." The events in question occurred in the early days of my Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and "In what way?" asked Holmes. I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past business?" "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you such person." themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have his knees, staring into the fire. size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the "And it is--" upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, "In what way?" asked Holmes. - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong towards the blaze. Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary