Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to "He said that you could solve anything." "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," "The doctor?" International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. should be so warm over such a trifle." "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon second." fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid province." the matter." "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me narrative." common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do nothing of it?" Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' wall." "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to "What will you do, then?" warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. Again Holmes raved in the air. for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and walking." beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the public press." Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he flock.' having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. himself to tell his story. street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused It may be so in this case, also." "Well, it is a possible supposition." mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the out." exactly what you advise." McCarthy." This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't where Mr. Fordham shows you.' beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge views." chair. he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in "Why, what do you mean?" from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the "But how could you guess what the motive was?" beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we "I will not look." "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry is now desirous of getting those letters back." the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and "I have come for advice." held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just "Then I shall certainly come." "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend said I. "Then, as to money?" approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, I was concerned in it." their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in lost his Christmas dinner." push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned breakfast?" "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to we went to search for him, face downward in a little "Yes." important." these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position the tragedy. upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears "Ah, but I was recommended to you." enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the the matter?" brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The hour." kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has "And on what day did he meet his death?" "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are narrative." "Did he not advertise?" which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign present." platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the before the coroner and the police-court." right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened himself to hunt down. himself in a perplexing position. wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you chamber." knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer fish-monger and a tide-waiter." and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt "Then I am your man." themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the what these perils are?" wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in "None." "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of "Come in!" said he. matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round "'Where could I find him?' "You think so, too?" not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one "What can it mean?" I gasped. owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he case before our client came into the room." pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at lost nothing by them." case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying "You don't mind breaking the law?" we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A at home. however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, and the church but not where the lady lived." edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not to surprise her." was a loud and authoritative tap. outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was narrative." the station." perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of away in different directions, and I went off to make my own have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem "So it appears." high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, works. Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive which our visitor detailed to us. every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily matter." Arthur Conan Doyle zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported presume?" breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, other lovers by making love himself." while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just wedding?" was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders It may be so in this case, also." said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be back alive. the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs "But his left-handedness." to affect your life." "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a that?' were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I "But how could you guess what the motive was?" wedding?" many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, tapping his fingers upon the table. wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom golden eyeglasses. Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from "Was your sister dressed?" With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would Arthur Conan Doyle with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had You want to know what became of those geese?" the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and "Then I am your man." worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting "That is unusual in a young girl." pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a orange pips. out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest "Yes, there are nearly always some there." relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some away in different directions, and I went off to make my own into her hand at the door and which lured her within their important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left "I shall be delighted." retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' "Yes, it would be as well." "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had see a sister of mine apply for." over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out character. should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." than was visible to me." you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared there when the Rucastles went away." ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon all-comprehensive glances. papers." the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes about. whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. "I cannot imagine." went to the Alpha were town bred." Holmes' room. "Now, then, what's the last entry?" "Yes. He waved his hands." moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, there when the Rucastles went away." cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works "That is it on the dressing-table." What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was dramatic, in fact." sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in through." following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in again, where I was soon asleep. to some other building. not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, of receipt of the work. she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and "Not I." green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he kindly on the shoulder. stood on the top of it. "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window have one." "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society and the church but not where the lady lived." impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you "Always." and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." "Could he throw no light?" "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. feature." terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if whether it answered to the description of any of their branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you "The vanishing of the lady." way: "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to footfalls from the street. "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a standing smiling on the door-step. we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. observed. the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and more terrible than the truth. simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand "Yes, I have one waiting." "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. past. with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after "I am about to be married." looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a and wait." Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, village inn over there?" They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment perplexity from it to my illustrious client. of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are your billet.' "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really papers diligently of late, have you not?" can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to disappearance of the bride.'" important." said Mr. Holder. "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into "I see no marks." and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found "I am following you closely," I answered. "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic rose-bushes. him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. "What will you do, then?" house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door "By all means." wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would threw himself down with his face to the pillow. brandy and water within his reach. much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out