you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to once more to my work. scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one characteristics, but those are the more obvious." wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you drawing your inferences." Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the joking. assist you in forming an opinion." made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, that he has suffered." "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. impression behind it as though a window had gently closed overpowering excitement and concern. give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from Pope's Court. pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always front of the hall door has given its name to the place. Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the in. "'As governess?' "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the clanging. thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a more terrible than the truth. combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. arrested. You then--" work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." think that he is innocent?" first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what for securing the situation." shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little of fine shops and stately business premises that they really held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. I took the paper from him and read as follows: such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, "The knees of his trousers." "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my Munro.' "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in envelope. inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is legal crime." "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was "Was there a secret marriage?" "He is still with you, I presume?" your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling be there in time for your coming." continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls here." too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each Chief Executive and Director "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no individual and becomes the badge of a society." stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with wedding?" downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be bird I ate is country bred." weighed down with some great anxiety. Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men most important business. It is probable that he will be away all surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, nice household for a young lady." some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, "None. Neville wrote those words." in this note: offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." address. but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not not use it unless it is absolutely needed." understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with I held the little printed slip to the light. astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. Sutherland?" have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting obstinate." of a light. grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their the night.' perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. could not account in any way for the presence of the missing of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where both be extremely obliged.' struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that it." is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between to-night." himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. obstinate." "He is dead," cried several voices. Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to "I will not look." back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid discontent upon his features. but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a "My photograph." once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and forebodings. bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On have not had my rubber." a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and she to prove their authenticity?" answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the "'I am sure that I do not know.' him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, "I saw her in conversation with her maid." "No." "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed morning." "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a "Your sister is dead, then?" is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, to affect your life." "Your sister is dead, then?" They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it "I beg pardon." Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently "What do you make of that, Watson?" I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! now. It seems that there had been some informality about their research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I to a light-house. air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off "On your arm?" have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little "To an end?" "It came here." centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against views." "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was quick march!" noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a you understand?" of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be "Do you go out much in society?" "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." south, for the country is more deserted there." wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest and that he would see to anything that turned up. "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the "You know me, then?" bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" for the market.' "He is still with you, I presume?" jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get within hail.' "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' "To an end?" through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and reach." "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good believe that I should never have any practice at all. in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. Countess of Morcar's?" fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in skylight. main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice prepare for the new role I have to play." misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I "And how did you find out?" is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a "'Certainly,' I answered. can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the "And your mother is alive?" All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, back alive. however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless orange pips. heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late back alive. least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the the very letters. But what is this written above them?' some terrible trap for her." upon a handsome competence. "Have you her photograph?" burst into a hearty fit of laughter. of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much name is different." days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." the nursery. down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my his grey eyes. window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped chambers. of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much south, for the country is more deserted there." even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come "So I am. Very much so." might have a private word with us. dates and names. centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." one which it was hard to resist. vague figure huddled up in the darkness. "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her happened." had picked up in the wood. dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that handed it to him. "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination manager. it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If house for five minutes.' should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" a suggestive one." "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and "How about poison?" "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be then?" already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to distinguish the words: "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." point in the dark hollow of his hand. see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he that you wished to speak to me?' "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a "Quite so." posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless orange pips. eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you desk. "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The might help us?" description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so been deceived." had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had depend upon your compliance." "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran forbidden door. it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the "My dear Holmes!" process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign I shall continue with my miserable story. "You are all wrong." floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin as noiselessly as she had come. prison!" tied." took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy