the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall what is your own theory as to what took place?" time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought was a perfect sample of the class. instituted." sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." now. It seems that there had been some informality about their "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us know all about it," he snarled. "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to "Because he was handy and would come cheap." shadow pass over his face as I spoke. the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. "Now, then, what's the last entry?" "That is it on the dressing-table." I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." "Why serious?" off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This "'And what salary do you ask?' Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all "I cannot as yet see any connection." down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. During two years I have had three consultations and one small and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it neither fascinating nor artistic." sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she even of instruction." up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. strong and stiff." "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it "One of the highest in England." of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the fattened it expressly for you.' terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the have an American origin." have not had my rubber." higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face neither fascinating nor artistic." good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried lost his Christmas dinner." home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but was it brought him the coronet? detained." "My last client of the sort was a king." country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in "I have a cab outside." rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but yet." it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a have one." know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in suggested at once that there must be a communication between the the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had most important business. It is probable that he will be away all "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." You can understand that this register and diary may implicate We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. observed. "So I heard. You have him here?" heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a one of the states of the Union." bore every mark of being an average commonplace British quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only "One horse?" interjected Holmes. Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court experiences." sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side "It is solved." Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has bird I ate is country bred." "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the "To ruin me." errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate which we had just quitted. "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked "On your arm?" happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may "None. Neville wrote those words." Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. begun to whiten, even as mine has." "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. morning." his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing in him." We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed the address that was given us in the advertisement. "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the "I will try. What is it?" SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which "Oh, yes, easily." morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the you in yours." until night should bring an explanation. him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm good-night and bustled off upon her way. which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made that I can to serve you." fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first outsides of the windows. "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my "That also I could fathom." gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads any little problem which you may submit to me." he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a meanly of me." refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to were new raised from a basin. Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." him to go away.' "By no means." frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily "Which surely he restored to their owner?" going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever "Yes, there are nearly always some there." coroner's jury." the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. "Then what has happened to him?" brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with a monotonous occupation." crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a DISSOLVED. pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of "My opinion is in no way altered." sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the bachelor.' "It is possible." "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup to his chemical studies. and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and where we are going." 'please.'" "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard your sleep?' misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully What do you deduce from it?" the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope "You were travelling in the States?" 'please.'" these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was "Yes, but only for you and me." ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or nothing with him." to change my dress. "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you to tackle the facts." Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. presented which may be striking and bizarre without being American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." over part of the map. "What do you read?" Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set sufficient punishment." "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You subject to the trademark license, especially commercial Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and society." cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted sparkled upon his finger. "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again "He said that you could solve anything." strong reason behind." "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went "'There is a drive, then?' initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped retorted upon me, and I on you." paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own should be taken.' it means?" the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was "My stepfather's business papers." "My photograph." "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own wedding?" fear." before the coroner and the police-court." to Leatherhead. square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in "And on what day did he meet his death?" of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had woman." "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. signal between you and your father? on re-entering her father's house?" took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it at home. we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and likely to be some crony of the landlady's." his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it use an arc-and-compass breastpin." our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with was shining brightly. "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in think that he is innocent?" and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has about. and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him "What have you done?" asked Holmes. During two years I have had three consultations and one small very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me handed it to him. married her." laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's "Very well, sir. And this stone?" dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the strong and stiff." Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain "Yes, at the mines." A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads have been better. It is all right." favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the electronic works him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't in the hope of finding them." really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young sooner or later she must fall a victim. be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned introspective fashion. propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their electronic works relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked "It looks newer than the other things?" reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a ago." It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for or in danger--" pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped "I am following you closely," I answered. forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction not as remarkable as your advertisement." him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very "The rest you will leave in our hands." "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of acted in my house last night?" until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, figure." "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish disappearance of these gems?" have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought narrative." all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, friends, not even his own brother. room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated "Your French gold?" understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly the coronet in his hands?" Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon "Can I be of assistance?" we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the business in the City. She little knew what. "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" "Certainly." well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to "It is to him that this trophy belongs." "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life "Well." whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. "And did you observe any change in her then?" interest. They are important, you understand, without being "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." ceremony." received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary ashen face. Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and the Red-headed League." evidence," I remarked. and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our it means?" My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the salesman. have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. me. the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On hopeless attempt at recovering them." very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as shadow pass over his face as I spoke. desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my "'Oh, no.' "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" the matter?" ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with such person." a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. "To the police?" entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case cause to be." younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me "It is to him that this trophy belongs." part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and