he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand the King without delay." It was close upon four before the door opened, and a "And now?" He raised his hand. controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock colonel looking down at me. brain must have something in it." wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose know that the truth is known." a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What something of him before." "Precisely." Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing you?" not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before married her." future lives." Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible depend upon my doing so.' "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your you." crackling voice. one of the states of the Union." "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my Holmes. rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in "This concluded the examination of the witness." it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that John Swain, of St. Augustine. Stoke Moran." across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and as noiselessly as she had come. "But how could you guess what the motive was?" "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm with some details as to your case." Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue go--none." "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the this unhappy family?" that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." "I cannot tell." heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? before, for it was considerably after midnight. "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the retorted upon me, and I on you." of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, Cross for the Continent." passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all the best of training." not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the points to suicide?" my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent this man was intellectual?" "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master may never be exposed to such a temptation." business?" "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for intimate personal affairs in this public manner." digesting their breakfasts at home." X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR little adventures." "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his second." "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we "I have solved it." a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry putting in the horse. accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported "Pray let us have it, for all that." along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch so far?" to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another the matter?" "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his quite distinctive." opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any "What! You do not mean bodies?" leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of horse could go." shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, was used.' away to you." "You'll never persuade me to believe that." gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It which was all perfectly true. even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this "No, distinctly professional." "Yes, from Horsham." call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so "Then what has happened to him?" hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." morning." glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, and have this put in the evening papers." at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer means taking possession of that which another person has a prior low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried criminal. We have already had experience of such." "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had "And how did you find out?" "To ruin me." into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in "Why, it's a dummy," said he. "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had soul! here is her carriage at the door." "No, finished." which it had come upon my father." certainly do as you advise." "We have tried and failed." thought that she would have been so carried away." Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it gbnewby@pglaf.org though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have must compliment you." his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, that he will be back before evening." too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, redistribution. fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." "And Irene Adler?" impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my go from here to the Strand." signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. fear." leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." quickly through a disagreeable task. delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." "Yes." "A greater distance to travel." One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by "Nor running a chance of arrest?" white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I "It looks newer than the other things?" really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I the so-precious time, but come!' "Your French gold?" breakfast and whispered something to her husband. lamp in his hand. be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the letters?" aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out "That also I could fathom." "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular "Murdered?" London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my good for you to do.' he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was "I shall be delighted." should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way "No, distinctly professional." "No." "My stepfather's business papers." "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be "And how did you find out?" than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project records." "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged "And how did you verify them?" I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their "In San Francisco, a year ago." Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The disturbance in my wife." III. for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I matter over." be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to suddenly upon us." locked. "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last your room." a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with "What then?" returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of over here." in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the I held the little printed slip to the light. of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be himself to hunt down. wedding?" abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a "You are all wrong." word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to in my life." rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. "'Quite sure, dad.' to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. to a light-house. coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the opportunities to fix the problem. to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual "There are none." it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked green of the new foliage. presented more singular features than that which was associated relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From and inquire as to the address." appointment with me for six o'clock?" seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the "Did he not advertise?" "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always himself to hunt down. manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue "How many? I don't know." at home. don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. "It is very clear." he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less touch that coronet?' "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the looking up at the numbers of the houses." He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was "None." there were one or two details which were new to me. But the from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he "And now?" I asked. "I see no marks." "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, business matters.' have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having morning." "I have hopes." "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon characteristics, but those are the more obvious." advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a the house with me." I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it annoyance, but no jest. "I assure you that I am in your hands." entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" and a shock of very red hair. it. "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to his wife has ceased to love him." brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." do." inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy and all of them with the keenest interest. which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it "'And what are they worth?' I asked. "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this this unhappy family?" "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its outbreak?" "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for "But how?" on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the know all about it," he snarled. and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going anything to do with the matter?" "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," address. "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must fatally injured? Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our The King stared at him in amazement. face and glided from the room. front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp gone before you can get him to hospital." "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it investigation." my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger asked. we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers "'Yes, sir.' papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," me what he had done with the three missing stones. everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. anything to do with the matter?" he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. lost his Christmas dinner." he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you "Well, it is a possible supposition." "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on papers must be those that are destroyed.' you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. "BALLARAT." little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from night.' said he. make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a all-comprehensive glances. Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague "But you would not advise me to refuse?" Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. "And now?" I asked. stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was leaning back in his chair. simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is bird I ate is country bred." We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place look dissatisfied." hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away hurried away. Serpentine Avenue. were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money "I shall most certainly do so." ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can weary and pale-looking. "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel the matter?" cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on character. shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think