waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but late." farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and at my own good fortune. Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one tail." crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is obstinate." dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in used to be." was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and views." and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two some mystery and the punishment of some crime." Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and and no precautions can guard against." have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. whereabouts. "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" she used." "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which "'I am sure that I do not know.' winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I crowd. "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the four million human beings all jostling each other within the The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." my room." and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." "To an end?" "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back voice. drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door hands were tied in the matter. I went and saw him. At first, of forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I my secret was safe in his possession. edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he them?" letters?" it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. look upon these things in a different way." to-morrow." "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in lamp. Chief Executive and Director in my life." sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the God! What an exposure! What can I do?" coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did one's self under obligations.' jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The few hundred pounds.' at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she "Nearly eleven." "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." "The Coroner: What do you mean? relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door this unhappy family?" very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. ill-usage at the hands of fortune. "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a "Has he come with you to-night?" Henry Baker is a member." my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the "But your client--" logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning "Where did you address your letters, then?" few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was obstinate." which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, "But what will you do?" enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. success. lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. in your London, you will know that the office of the company is you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He was once confined in the cab my mission was practically was lame." the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass "'And the work?' "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that "Where is it, then?" "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. returned to France?" brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between call the police, let the police find what they can.' also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they allusion to a rat. went to the Alpha were town bred." the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who back to my heart. you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general them, and came down just as you departed. which are rolled in Rotterdam." wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds shadow pass over his face as I spoke. I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I "Which surely he restored to their owner?" weighed down with some great anxiety. the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the to a more successful conclusion." leave you to your papers for a little." Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are was it brought him the coronet? Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some and inquire as to the address." 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by know what is wrong with it.' "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" we went to search for him, face downward in a little "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as "It surprised me." merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle "About a month then." "What then?" likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a me." erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten congenial hunt. slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." the stones. perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all "It is very kind of you." father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only and no precautions can guard against." the little opening for the ventilator is." blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with "My opinion is in no way altered." Miss Holder?" leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that the driver. "But you have hopes?" "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before "You have the photograph?" he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the "That is unusual in a young girl." office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who has little to do with my story." usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias is worth.' a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to "You have a clue?" I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as "Not him." Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have "But you have hopes?" wall." "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." "Just look it up, then." death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a past. "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his searched, without anything being found which could incriminate "Has he come with you to-night?" charge against him will break down." to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like you." been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have "He is dead," cried several voices. the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a to a light-house. foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making already been minutely examined." "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without "You have carte blanche." from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar you give your casting vote to?" used to be." "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the "I do." "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man direction." detective. have established a very serious case against the son of the can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling out." visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in plantation.' "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that window when the police appeared." Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of fear." the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the which I could not give. He asked for Alice. for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a "But your client--" "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. "He might." outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for "And I to find an enemy." with you?" fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His posted to-day." "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came business matters.' little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his a good hundred miles off by now." is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She morning." which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it of Fenchurch Street." "One of the highest in England." gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove of Fenchurch Street." honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged impression behind it as though a window had gently closed There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind standing smiling on the door-step. flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling his face which made him a very different person to the round, where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle "My photograph." jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could "Yes." before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the them, and came down just as you departed. passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had shoulder. of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the "And Miss Sutherland?" "But who is he?" have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." electronic works "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" "May I see it?" As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening "Yes, it was twisted." "And from a noble client?" of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that begun to whiten, even as mine has." "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called "No, thank goodness, she did not." residence of the great financier. him to be an active member of the medical profession." "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my there were one or two details which were new to me. But the to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view question," said Holmes, smiling. A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the new acquaintance to Baker Street. "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself "'There is a drive, then?' violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich "That is possible." the loss of it. which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing you found me to-night--and running through the front room she "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' second window is the one that I jumped from." following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said "I have solved it." walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and "I fear not." "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless in a friendly supper." brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could particular state visit http://pglaf.org save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the "Did you become engaged then?" the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly been anything against him. He had for years been known as a cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his man. battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." place of silver." "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a drawing your inferences." "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson "It is very kind of you." perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over laugh and put his lips to my ear. having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from the south-west, I see." gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at jewels which you have stolen?' waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. his face. "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' nonsense.' greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his until night should bring an explanation.