stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to "But how?" whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very American. Then who could this American be, and why should he the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at "I fear not." he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the "They are typewritten," I remarked. to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its would then never go into court at all." "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be Holmes' face clouded over. isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the London for the present?" were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, bare slabs of marble. sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the I nodded again. the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager at my own good fortune. main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land "Then what has happened to him?" Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a "My own seal." that you saw all that I did." now. It seems that there had been some informality about their promised to bring home. there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. suspect him." "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands not as remarkable as your advertisement." 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. that, and I came down." But Holmes shook his head gravely. "Your sister is dead, then?" to that open window." things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," papers on the sundial.'" were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a one which it was hard to resist. "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen most interesting one." "Where, then?" "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is "Never." offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. tell them apart.' your equipment. the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain shaken than I had ever seen him. including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated "But how?" "Where to?" fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, Cross for the Continent." springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more "What then?" "And how in the world did you find them?" "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the weighed down with some great anxiety. out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" "I have my revolver," said I. even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name of the efforts of the United States government and of the better the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us that there was nothing in it, after all." "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little "Not I." for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to both be extremely obliged.' "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I front of the hall door has given its name to the place. "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life one else, I think." red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in in one or two places in England?' to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your as the one I chose?' journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as "No." of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already fatally injured? girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day have accepted such a situation. "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of "Do you know him?" It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove disappearance of these gems?" You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you "Entirely." customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while little adventures." something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until "Yes. He waved his hands." that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of yourselves in at night?" to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her "A greater distance to travel." had a long day." Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I "Yes, sir." "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, "When did it break out?" presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in amused." to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is power." just called myself is not exactly my own." I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. chamber." bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so "If so, much may have happened between." conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you Holmes' face clouded over. miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in "'And what are they worth?' I asked. see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, "One?" roused himself from his reverie. my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian breakfast and whispered something to her husband. for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was too. cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what "When did she vanish, then?" twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will hard-headed British jury." league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. "You know me, then?" going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." distinguish the words: utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding taking in every detail of the apartment. Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a him to go away.' state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and question you as to those details which seem to me to be most other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence "You don't mind breaking the law?" "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his congenial hunt. that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I "I assure you that I am in your hands." appointment with me for six o'clock?" "Perhaps I have." knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my some city in a dream. unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then lumber-room." "Ha! you find it so?" "But how will you look?" attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us and I shall be with you presently." bare slabs of marble. furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how could go. brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another peculiar to him. Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, opportunities to fix the problem. "What are they?" next day. disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary "No, finished." fluttered off among the others. "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some advice." presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed might help us?" matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached help us in this matter." things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to question," said Holmes, smiling. "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous was once confined in the cab my mission was practically see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he "'I have heard so.' Mrs. Toller serenely. at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? "What I expected to see." bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms "Yes, there are nearly always some there." chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square the side-table." took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. who was a member of your goose club." Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A that I may have something better before very many minutes are to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do "Then, as to money?" "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it Chief Executive and Director "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the "To ruin me." seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for whether it answered to the description of any of their of a light. miles off. not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with to-night?' suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. man. I know him from the photograph." great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his Holmes' face clouded over. went to the Alpha were town bred." "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into through." petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the and your relations to her." Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs 1.F. sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she "Witness: I must still refuse. "It is possible." police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally Mary, has deserted me." heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the front of the hall door has given its name to the place. or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and fishes. begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." "'Where could I find him?' a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, have accepted such a situation. frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he writers could invent nothing more crude." in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was hurried away. on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have "What will you do, then?" slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, "It must be recovered." what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. your billet.' have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and because she had spent so short a time in this country that she My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own once more for Briony Lodge.