"'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it your sleep?' bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our "He might." one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, you." When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less and the church but not where the lady lived." I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past round with crates and massive boxes. "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" "I was afraid that you were engaged." "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of conversation I have gathered that they have been married about course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off "You did not overhear what they said?" cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been "Bought." who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent lids now and glanced across at his visitor. "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, "My dear Holmes!" mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost "Yes, only one." did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction "No more words. Get out!" of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and "The murder was done with it." Edgeware Road. "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it anything to do with the matter?" reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." them present such singular features as the strange train of handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I during which he might have communicated with his friend the father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I Again Holmes raved in the air. your equipment. "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. relief. "And that is--" two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and "No, I had a dozen." "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." "'And what are they worth?' I asked. companion. paper in the air. clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, purpose equally well?" Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. answered with a sidelong glance. "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are "And why in hopes?" have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to gbnewby@pglaf.org "Whose house is it?" business." more solid." him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, was not a bird to be seen there. "It goes to the housekeeper's room." presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." "But you would not advise me to refuse?" considering the formidable letters which were received by himself "Very. But will he see it?" of it with the greatest attention. if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the events, Mr. Windibank!" "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have of campaign. before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from the King without delay." immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each "Thank you. And your address?" so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took during which he might have communicated with his friend the "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding "His face fell immediately. "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: and your relations to her." and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that his eyes and forehead. lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter "'You cannot say what it was?' Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the said I. "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of hands. would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save would then never go into court at all." Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no standing smiling on the door-step. "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the you?" "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard galvanised. from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of once more. their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already a good hundred miles off by now." beg that you will break it off." spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. bearing upon the case." rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more "I shall most certainly do so." madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. "And why in hopes?" gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have answered with a sidelong glance. believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey "But how?" method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." was once confined in the cab my mission was practically "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he congenial hunt. He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project which we had just quitted. have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the any." which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, "I think that it is very probable." central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." flock.' "What then?" brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety heavily into it. "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." "How did you deduce the select?" uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual "It missed him, then?" keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can yards of it?' Eyford." upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the Leadenhall Street--and--" "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its "That sounds a little paradoxical." "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny lumber-room." He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted in your London, you will know that the office of the company is "Yes, only one." "How on earth--" Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the unkempt, staring out at me. window when the police appeared." down from London to inquire more deeply into it." held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not "'Yes.' line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. introspective fashion. nonsense.' before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was orange pips. that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the opened a pocket-book and took out a note. across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." this truth that in these little records of our cases which you Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time hereditary King of Bohemia." "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could waste of energy." "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in before, for it was considerably after midnight. of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which Munro.' charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who thought that she would have been so carried away." These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all "'Tell me all about it,' said I. have established a very serious case against the son of the is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend chamber." the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in approach us with offers to donate. "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, galvanised. "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, with her." a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same "Where did you address your letters, then?" "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and about here speaks of his kindness to him." or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the "And you thought he was pulled back?" dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a you in your example." He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with to Leatherhead. "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during "What will you say?" "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should "I say that I have solved it." the room while you explain this matter?" "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke better grown goose." "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the was not a bird to be seen there. http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour "Frequently." "I am about to be married." "What are they?" Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned him, that man would not have given me such complete information to tackle the facts." everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the third from London." "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, "And how in the world did you find them?" after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be undoubtedly my uncle's." something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. matter over." sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his already referred to. "'I am sure that I do not know.' however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in "It must be recovered." dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the strange features which were associated with the two crimes which to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The that the gas is not laid on in his house?" decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an address. and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into to Leatherhead. touch that coronet?' Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called "Pray let us have it, for all that." "Did he not advertise?" "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in "Ah!" you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. cigar and let me expound." "Breckinridge is his name." weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This "None." state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the "No." but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." "One of the highest in England." "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a of receipt of the work. "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor "'Ample.' window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. "What then?" "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." "Is he quiet?" ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed and have this put in the evening papers." we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a "How long did she speak to this Alice?" "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of "Do you receive much company?" he asked. remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew "That is unusual in a young girl." girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I approach us with offers to donate. your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist "Not him." was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a his knees, staring into the fire. reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of fuss that is made over them." It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the