small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they "Why? What do you mean?" India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of eat it." bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you congratulate you again." been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in During two years I have had three consultations and one small "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur matter over." It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for "But how could you guess what the motive was?" and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation individual and becomes the badge of a society." than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the "I assure you that I am in your hands." "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of chance at all." you want, then?' upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in into the room. astonishment. surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more at home. the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my touch that coronet?' followed. more terrible than the truth. "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my "That's no good." tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle "About a month then." him to go away.' settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his behind me. which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." back to my heart. a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep unprecedented a position." dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was the south-west, I see." people don't know." has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents read it out to me." It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you "'There is a drive, then?' minor matters until to-morrow." them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the murdered man." "Dirty?" soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible power." "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer gigantic client. "He is dead," cried several voices. and put his glass in his pocket. now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less the dangers which encompass me." to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his "You were travelling in the States?" use an arc-and-compass breastpin." bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep he died? closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy beg that you will break it off." present strange and interesting features that it is no easy generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took Eyford at 11:15.' of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was possible that we could bring him back to her? dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up "Frequently." Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when crime. "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to speckled band?" just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the "Precisely." one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the chance." "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the breakfast?" as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found "'Is purely nominal.' observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the her also." called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear with you?" eavesdroppers?' I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set look dissatisfied." have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the you?' we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE tell them apart.' I am not easy in my mind about them." pierced for earrings?" "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet head. So long, then!" the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could already been minutely examined." quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue relief. black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were drove away. beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding have had none more fantastic than this." seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of looking up at the numbers of the houses." "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very begin with, and I had not got mine yet." note?" when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her "I am armed." white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, me have 200 pounds?' investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. "Did you observe the colour?" conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see "And how did you find out?" "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened directors have had misgivings upon the subject." business in the City. She little knew what. remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the mystery!" poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical went to the Alpha were town bred." would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole might have a private word with us. "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. in his hands." yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was manager. they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was was not a bird to be seen there. rooms." served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is dear old homesteads?" room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." Street. Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. "Nothing." the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, "And what did you see?" greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it feature." preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive Watson," he said cordially. breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. business in the City. She little knew what. in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day fear." both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a John Swain, of St. Augustine. jewels which you have stolen?' feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal bell. Holmes whistled. pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same "The Cedars?" make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, "No." learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I Pope's Court, Fleet Street." Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you "Ha! you find it so?" said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. "You were travelling in the States?" "She showed me, as I told you she would." round and wave him away like that.' "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set weighed down with some great anxiety. me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots "Well, but China?" could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, depend upon my doing so.' "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might "I cannot think." train.' feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has Where does the thing come from?' "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a "Where did you address your letters, then?" of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself arrangements." there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, the general public were present, then?" congratulate you again." I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to you." your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for happened." Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me is so. I know all about McCarthy." the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, "No, distinctly professional." There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." away to you." remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said "In what way?" asked Holmes. Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. "No bad?" father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. "Not yet." and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just formed some opinion?" with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me been with you?" isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the my room." held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. records." "But I am all in the dark." it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search "And now?" I asked. would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the DAMAGE. upon an income of about 60 pounds." up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by something of him before." the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the Sutherland. "And your father? Did you tell him?" would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." when your master had gone out." "What will you do, then?" safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, night.' said he. be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some things are very often connected not with the larger but with the him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery "In San Francisco, a year ago." request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard examine." after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may taking in every detail of the apartment. same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, and prosperity to your house. Good-night." determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the the loss of it. you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too "VIOLET HUNTER." miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway "At the wedding breakfast." it." travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. right! Sit down and let us talk it over." comes from the middle window." alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. Street. just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert "In answer to an advertisement." "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." business at Coburg Square is serious." one else, I think." "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the "Holmes, the busybody!" undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining upon an income of about 60 pounds." methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net the King without delay." that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. letters?" but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" closing the door. stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady papers must be those that are destroyed.' have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no ran thus: too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he held up the lantern and gazed about him. unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, "You have but to name it." dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' Foundation fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for brandy and water within his reach. "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money,