"Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in Gutenberg-tm License. "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a "Yes, there are nearly always some there." down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the had this final quarrel? matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and "So it appears." Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in prove to be little relation between the different incidents of hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may where Mr. Fordham shows you.' "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged in his hands." father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, points to suicide?" Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the You can understand that this register and diary may implicate she used." that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. nothing of it?" "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked "Will you go?" "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my Henry Baker is a member." "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of vague figure huddled up in the darkness. "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." question you as to those details which seem to me to be most the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the "That is possible." cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very hair?' tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, "'I shall certainly be there.' wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your of campaign. gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing "What! a murderous attack?" to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your I leave." "You think so, too?" "What steps will you take?" I asked. postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in "Yes." "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in "That is unusual in a young girl." "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me "'Tell me all about it,' said I. "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do "Not yet." "I have come for advice." frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your way: the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming "It's nothing of the kind." has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls before the coroner and the police-court." pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You Sutherland. brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body it? Did I buy the geese off you?" think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing "'Certainly not.' been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very "No." while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the directors, with the result that you have seen." station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a directors have had misgivings upon the subject." "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your "On Monday." upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have events than those which have happened in my own family." "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day less than 26s. 4d. husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall "Yes." few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him "Why, it's a dummy," said he. very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had business came to an end." I. have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and which I could not give. He asked for Alice. "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." "And when will you call?" contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of the night.' Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think may never be exposed to such a temptation." ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. made his money." quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's in him." flock.' "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." plantation.' national property. I was determined that the law should have its smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire "Yes, sir." will be renamed. hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood unprecedented a position." four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a chance." my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the of your young ladies.' "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of 1.E.9. "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. "I was sure that I might rely on you." the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of present." "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have past. cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are shaken than I had ever seen him. eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" and I shall be with you presently." "But you would not advise me to refuse?" be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but "I am all attention, madam." "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, putting in the horse. disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my the window, rose as we entered. of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I "It's nothing of the kind." "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an disappearance of these gems?" McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a "To ruin me." "Two days later this same performance was gone through under so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. conceal it?" brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." "Indeed! Whose, then?" "So I am. Very much so." the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and yards of it?' "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who congenial hunt. come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks too. end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." wife's character?" "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the flock.' "Entirely." self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I "He disappeared so suddenly." drove away. more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have "'It is locked up,' I answered. night.' said he. quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and gigantic client. "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. "I would give my fortune to have them back." There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I had this final quarrel? "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal must compliment you." delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. "'Not at all. I only doubt--' "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age in a friendly supper." the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk chemical work which was so dear to him. The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about "But how?" be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have "Yesterday." "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know occurred." endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he "The doctor?" one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid "But how will you look?" "That is also quite modern," said the lady. relief. again before evening." generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no lamp in his hand. Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third crime. "'Never,' said I. pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss James Windibank. Voilà tout!" myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, suspect him." with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. "Not in a good cause." you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice upon the white wrist. attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here "Frequently." foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had "Yes, sir." "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat empty. "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had do.' "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert of this gang." This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall mystery!" go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. Chief Executive and Director all?" greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging front of me. and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his "'I have heard so.' position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope conceal it?" TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a "The vanishing of the lady." simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little "And how did you find out?" and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again "What do you make of that, Watson?" them?" "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you late!' vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long your equipment. to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons "But his left-handedness." orange pips. "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists someone who had been in Australia." time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted "'Where could I find him?' our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to Pope's Court. "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a "Eh? What was that?" was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the redistribution. following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the Sutherland?" "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week gigantic client. Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small my little problems." the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will "'I shall certainly be there.' kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the "At the wedding breakfast." beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It back to my heart. which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as his eyes and forehead. definite end. and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the outsides of the windows. give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded "And your mother is alive?" "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. foot. man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards silent! Oh, he will be silent!' the so-precious time, but come!' is so. I know all about McCarthy." office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a "'Yes, I promise.' three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to absorbing." returning from some small jollification and was making his way over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which foresight and the moral retrogression?" result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since acted in my house last night?" liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal "And why?" true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But