case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. "The Cedars?" successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are instituted." her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very "The murder was done with it." Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my "Of Friday, June 19th." and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An room?" once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly constraint." flock.' warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I presented which may be striking and bizarre without being grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': it." "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had nonsense.' was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason them present such singular features as the strange train of if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others with frightened eyes at his accuser. to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, occupations.' "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' until night should bring an explanation. over part of the map. "What do you read?" such attractions and accomplishments?' another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been "No sign of it?" listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that there!' was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. photograph?" name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." than to us. partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City "Then I am your man." my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One "Certainly." the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the a monotonous occupation." habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone him to be an active member of the medical profession." "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or his grey eyes. o'clock is it?" the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." "No more words. Get out!" companion imperturbably. really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning "Yes, there are nearly always some there." next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the tension within him. here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless "Very truly yours, "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness tied." long narrative. to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and official police." doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a that I can to serve you." him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That "Then you may be so with me." fatally injured? great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the "None." ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining "I am in hopes that she does." "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned companion. "I am all attention, madam." of them has the shutters up.' place of silver." of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but business?" family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, despaired of." disappearance of the bride.'" It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped 1.F. to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It wedding?" creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and place no limit on the sum I may draw." half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. "And why in hopes?" backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small for its centre. way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy "None. Neville wrote those words." late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that death." said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard Sholtos." him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point happened." thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire "Is he quiet?" nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in me. You must get home instantly and act." "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. "Oh, yes, easily." other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land matter over." drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from way in everything. the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of "No." "And sit in the dark?" "Why, it's a dummy," said he. feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal what I may call a really hard day's work." St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn "A client, then?" know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I "What have you to say now?" would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light walking." and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of place, I think that there is good ground to think that the income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than "I think it very unlikely." it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. which are rolled in Rotterdam." our word." "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's of the way of danger. "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it "I shall most certainly do so." roused himself from his reverie. smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. narrative." was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a "'There is a drive, then?' "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy "It was a confession," I ejaculated. thirty. distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of which was all perfectly true. again before evening." all?" disturbance in my wife." "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are "'I am sure that I do not know.' came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further "Did you observe the colour?" squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real she has been waylaid. There has been no result." fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as redistribution. settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week Literary Archive Foundation re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief problems help me to do so." showing my impatience. "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very "ARAT," I read. money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady the house with me." should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite golden eyeglasses. "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a sparkled upon his finger. "Tired-looking or fresh?" have not had my rubber." coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed seen the man in the road." "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself tapping his fingers upon the table. that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." "But you would not advise me to refuse?" "No, I had a dozen." find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, "I never have." heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold like that before?" you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and said he. conclusions. I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime crackling voice. unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite "Absolutely none." than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to "I was sure that I might rely on you." noble correspondent could be. "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for "I shall most certainly do so." flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair "And you don't know his address?" Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful thought that she would have been so carried away." asked with his eyes open. struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of "Where did you address your letters, then?" given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business bled considerably." Mrs. Toller serenely. "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his figure." and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? even so self-evident a thing as that." at once, for I have only half an hour." "Yes." Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even room. Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. "'Entirely.' "Was he the only applicant?" He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his "I am in hopes that she does." of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" Edgeware Road. and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my "A confidential servant?" us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from "It is a murder, then?" read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their begin with, and I had not got mine yet." in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in at once, for I have only half an hour." dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never "I am all attention, madam." Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you "How did you deduce the select?" do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a interest. They are important, you understand, without being making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the national property. I was determined that the law should have its "What will you say?" out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's "I guessed as much." Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" "You are certainly joking, Holmes." flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector "It is to him that this trophy belongs." constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with "Indeed! Whose, then?" the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." despair." began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to the date of his supposed suicide." shaken than I had ever seen him. "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. you." "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close Mrs. Toller serenely. "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they populous neighbourhood." that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself me." sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. learned something! Where are the gems?"