"You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune true." I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to interests were the same as his." an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was "Indeed! Whose, then?" Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being hopeless attempt at recovering them." Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever writers could invent nothing more crude." in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on his face which made him a very different person to the round, will find little credit to be gained out of this case." dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. said he. in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project imbecility!" he cried. Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is ourselves in the office." said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his results." trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the "Holmes, the busybody!" battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief later, upon the night of May 2nd." "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, "Yes, the wine-cellar." even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. Pope's Court, Fleet Street." "She told me to ask you." deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round might have a private word with us. "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" started for the Temple to see my husband. "Proceed, then." air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his "No. His orders were to stay in the house." acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled hardly wander." photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his them, and came down just as you departed. a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. the dangers which encompass me." "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. people don't know." "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for outbreak?" Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or points in connection with it which never have been, and probably here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, "And what then?" carriage. It was a chestnut." believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all at my remark. "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. awaited us upon the table. "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. just called myself is not exactly my own." "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest flock.' its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was "And sit in the dark?" he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely "What have you done?" asked Holmes. a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with horse could go." parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any "Holmes, the busybody!" "Pray let us have it, for all that." some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through could go. while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid she to prove their authenticity?" "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp "You were travelling in the States?" abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove him." have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his "What are they?" said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' "Where to?" say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the of them has the shutters up.' quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed "Perhaps I have." the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, companion. "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them you." "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." client, rising. framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, test if we have an answer to our advertisement." "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very must be when I saw the door open.' you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying "Yes, that is the Crown." tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at should be taken.' The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to bonnet, and went out." "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found "Nothing?" for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which "Yes, they were peculiar boots." suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, crime." "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend Watson," he said cordially. respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his to me. interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure "She will not sell." "That is possible." the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been any little problem which you may submit to me." have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to "A greater distance to travel." of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. third from London." were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly test if we have an answer to our advertisement." own family. "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of "BALLARAT." "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not "You think that he is dead?" themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, question," said Holmes, smiling. correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such "VIOLET HUNTER." those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the "Married! When?" appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than bell. Holmes whistled. accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better "'Where to?' "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was minor matters until to-morrow." cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking infinite languor in his face. protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand "It is very kind of you." "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this very old mansion. her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her at my own good fortune. investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the "Won't it ring?" off." of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp think that he is innocent?" the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what troubles have been weighing upon his mind. surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my there were one or two details which were new to me. But the miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the "But how did you gain them?" "Stolen." faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the murdered man." gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it death." suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of be there in time for your coming." succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." down from London to inquire more deeply into it." Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to "What can you not understand?" sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual was the fact that his father should, according to his account, retorted upon me, and I on you." cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are "I will get her to show me." "And Miss Sutherland?" very morning of my second wedding." which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced seen the man in the road." days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It weighed down with some great anxiety. recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but emerged. "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have I shall communicate with you." "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it "Dirty?" probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent the roots. never will be, entirely cleared up. that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open directly by questioning you." got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" was shining brightly. merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' as the one I chose?' "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just all that?" jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, should be so warm over such a trifle." follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about she might be summoned. murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you had this final quarrel? tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in any little problem which you may submit to me." had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love do.' hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and a few minutes he said that it would be all right. "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having "And Irene Adler?" suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But "Really! You surprise me." Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. "That is unusual in a young girl." husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had Leave Paddington by the 11:15." into her hand at the door and which lured her within their presented more singular features than that which was associated face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if "A call for help, you thought?" "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up ago." departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught "I guessed as much." interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not flock.' "None." entirely lost his self-respect." to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and you do it in twenty minutes!' I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in The King stared at him in amazement. he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers chemical work which was so dear to him. of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll