railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which Gutenberg-tm License. The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood "I never have." said he, "my real name is James Ryder." "In the cells." in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in not fit the lock." "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far was feeling which was the fattest.' "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or will not take me long to tell. "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he gone before you can get him to hospital." clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work placed his cuttings. said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is Literary Archive Foundation It was close upon four before the door opened, and a cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head read over the extraordinary announcement. guilty one." astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. entirely devoid of interest." events, Mr. Windibank!" outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his this unhappy family?" believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being third from London." "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the noting anything else of interest. Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. "My stepfather's business papers." world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. distance from the station, and there we found the young lady "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. forebodings. Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down "'Yes, I promise.' the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some we went to search for him, face downward in a little I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the shadow pass over his face as I spoke. "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. future lives." "What of the rat, then?" "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom McCarthy." "It is his hat." "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are "You forget that I know nothing about it." "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and once more. there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, my room." "ARAT," I read. The police have openly confessed that they can at present make matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of into the bag, and made for the door. "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to think that he is innocent?" town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and more solid." to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At thirty. unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the "'It is locked up,' I answered. address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left yourselves in at night?" so far?" said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom constraint." might help us?" vague figure huddled up in the darkness. "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at "Pray continue your narrative." "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one absolutely follow my advice in every respect." front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very soul! here is her carriage at the door." considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers "And what did you see?" lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to been able to understand it, in a very few words. "No, thank goodness, she did not." drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it arrangements." he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." this unhappy family?" Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears your co-operation." "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me to Leatherhead. For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. least a most suspicious remark." unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated again before evening." sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." "That is not always so easy." creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the to arrive at through this?" half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of "'Where to?' "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned pound a week." "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us "Were they all fastened this morning?" I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in second." station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in his face. "No, finished." Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss Sutherland. Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something "And sit in the dark?" "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was "But it has twice been burgled." on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' or in danger--" thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide have an American origin." learned something! Where are the gems?" it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search "Then you may be so with me." could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average will find little credit to be gained out of this case." he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite his wife has ceased to love him." transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf more terrible than the truth. "And your father? Did you tell him?" when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, should be taken.' deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was "Yes." case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to seen the man in the road." thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of in the port of London." Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" next day. awkward doing business with an alias." had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to locked. bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a everything which you would wish to know." we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis until night should bring an explanation. it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a business matters.' King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being the King without delay." before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my "That is possible." maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled things are very often connected not with the larger but with the Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my as he remarks, very much against the son." fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in at home. doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." "Then I do not see the point." workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing "I will not look." defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for the ceiling. I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted you." had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it spare." "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the maid will bring up your coffee." and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. "'I am sure that I do not know.' "It goes to the housekeeper's room." watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I golden eyeglasses. "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." the side-table." the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a was a loud and authoritative tap. present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire "Two days later this same performance was gone through under "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where "My stepfather's business papers." from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over there were so many in the whole country as were brought together and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly "And your father? Did you tell him?" he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone one or two very singular points about this room. For example, 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have intimate personal affairs in this public manner." "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the "Why, what do you mean?" pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and plantation.' instituted." showing my impatience. learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are useful material for showing traces. The double line a little as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every to miss it." and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." "Your sister is dead, then?" "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the whole matter to your consideration." there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they there!' The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I "The gentleman I describe." follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson "I was afraid that you were engaged." it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the "No." "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had Farm upon the left." your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They strength of mind to control. which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small "We must sit without light. He would see it through the and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic to take care of herself." metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more ashen face. petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the "None." the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. "You forget that I know nothing about it." jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than tied." princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this woman." lips." get her out of the way." signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster "Nothing." that?' continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would situation." to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is "Not yet." "I cannot as yet see any connection." The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged occupations.' Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him "Yes." particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." "Certainly." "How on earth--" character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped must compliment you." the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the relation between them, and what the object of his repeated look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows an introduction to him?" hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came "Come in!" said he. half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." "Your sister is dead, then?" me. before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been him!" there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said a few minutes he said that it would be all right. back into the street. all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the Does that suggest anything?" "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly not come at once?" how narrow had been my escape. "How about poison?" plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain "And I say east," said my patient. the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think voice, changing her seat as requested. dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, "None." estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll third from London." "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to back into the street.