cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" "Was there a secret marriage?" not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled in him." King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, galvanised. over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not "There are none." returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but "The Coroner: What do you mean? hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate "It is very clear." closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have whatever might befall. and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the help us in this matter." Surrey." Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has case-book, which he consulted. "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have you." "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men "'It is locked up,' I answered. Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to the coronet in his hands?" and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. "Who by?" Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them The King stared at him in amazement. to have been novel and of interest." "It was." right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a test if we have an answer to our advertisement." "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' weighed down with some great anxiety. from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my he. who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no head. So long, then!" cigar and let me expound." harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. to me. arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned hair?' shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save hour?' reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of "'Certainly,' I answered. some terrible trap for her." a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" in this note: known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The them, and came down just as you departed. examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute "You don't mind breaking the law?" object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have "Bought." "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; interests were the same as his." appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two triumphant cloud from his cigarette. some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of "Never." imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a "You are all wrong." was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every "'Never,' said I. companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you "I shall be delighted." his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he Miss Holder?" been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste front of the hall door has given its name to the place. becomes even more simple." "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and had formerly been in part my own. adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." so far?" advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was to-night?' collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept really the only notable feature about the thing." coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." breakfast." want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that "It missed him, then?" "Your French gold?" As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my "Proceed, then." "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' your own bird, so if you wish--" circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was "Just look it up, then." have I gained?" "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly desk. as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in Young McCarthy must be got off, however." "Certainly, madam." Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming "That you are never beaten." my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' asked. impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no up this clue while it is still hot." his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between "That's no good." be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian bird of prey. feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed ago." Holmes rather sternly. be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of mysterious end." horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further "Yes." Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose "That is possible." "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless that there was nothing in it, after all." every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the examine." was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." "What have you done?" asked Holmes. Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the some mystery and the punishment of some crime." metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable papers must be those that are destroyed.' been able to understand it, in a very few words. might help us?" transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, had a long day." for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though "I am still in the dark." with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the heavily into it. There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." in. upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important presented more singular features than that which was associated have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his to tackle the facts." brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in daring than any effort of the imagination." myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself "And Miss Sutherland?" had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the "Now, then, what's the last entry?" state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had easy-going way." generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no was not a bird to be seen there. that there was nothing in it, after all." off." perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. a little more before I quite committed myself. them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and "At what time?" "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years second window is the one that I jumped from." "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the "I should like to see him very much." "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a from you?" very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell "I will do it." obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of will he say when he returns?" saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such most interesting one." going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, Holmes' face clouded over. no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, colour had been driven from his face. life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that cigars in their mouths. "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was formed some opinion?" The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of "Yes." "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew shadow pass over his face as I spoke. "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. This is what he says: "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held o'clock is it?" are, I think, all that we need." our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood approach us with offers to donate. to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an "Yes, I have one waiting." vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end interest. They are important, you understand, without being confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive Mary, has deserted me." away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the "This photograph!" friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an acted in my house last night?" the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a true." rose-bushes. "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said "Yes." prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are is," said he presently: to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense "Absolutely none." enter into my head. the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and "Indeed! Whose, then?" instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his with frightened eyes at his accuser. ourselves in the office." quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland have been better. It is all right." have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since "It is solved." somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk tear off another piece?' remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his The events in question occurred in the early days of my and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling my special province." "Yes. He waved his hands." Henry Baker is a member." her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project "Who was the criminal, then?" something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" distance from the station, and there we found the young lady Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if "Yes." "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in "Where, then?" some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. your billet.' If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait congratulate you again." "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I quick march!" one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous "I have my revolver," said I. souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single "We have tried and failed." "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I "'Yes, I promise.' "Yes, that is the Crown." recall any case within my experience which looked at the first must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so believe that I should never have any practice at all. a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And showing my impatience. dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like shoulder; "he's all right." brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own Pope's Court, Fleet Street." silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set I. have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked "If I can be of use." "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little