"That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low are windows in it, of course?" Does that suggest anything?" letters?" "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so father's young wife. "This photograph!" which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay village inn over there?" closing the door. the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a knowledge of the world." science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new "May I see it?" hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet you?" Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me Again Holmes raved in the air. "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for "And why in hopes?" every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall strength in the others." with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The to a more successful conclusion." the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in to that open window." "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can It was close upon four before the door opened, and a "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small I think that I could be of assistance to you." and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were "No, thank goodness, she did not." old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your father's place of business?" lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions "Is he quiet?" deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as meanly of me." then?" "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few kind enough to tell me what I should do." upon the sideboard." prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. acted in my house last night?" and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I said I. hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For cause to be." old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers see me here to avoid scandal." it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was "You think that he is dead?" about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his and a shock of very red hair. mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for my friend's incisive reasoning. God! What an exposure! What can I do?" last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord 'please.'" produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering "You have it, sir, just as it happened." to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and my little problems." red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not "On the contrary, this is the right side." "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive once more to my work. paper in the air. happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to six. Come in!" at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into "That is it on the dressing-table." "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from golden eyeglasses. I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less must compliment you." "If so, much may have happened between." the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst "And Irene Adler?" separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. used to be." great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and III. Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, hand, madam?" "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over stalked out of the room. without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really Henry Baker is a member." had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a carriage. It was a chestnut." case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He coroner's jury." "Your presence might be invaluable." India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' "I have come for advice." two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was if only as a check to my own memory." Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty maid will bring up your coffee." "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if been able to understand it, in a very few words. and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, point our research must commence, and we will begin it by profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the opened a pocket-book and took out a note. then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four next day. anything to do with the matter?" But Holmes shook his head gravely. and that he would see to anything that turned up. "That you are never beaten." affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that "So I heard. You have him here?" the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man "But how did you gain them?" the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to was feeling which was the fattest.' seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a "But she will refuse." "It is possible." "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, "Not social, then?" and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, "How are you getting on?" the very morning of the wedding." This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: lamp. Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It "Dark enough and sinister enough." conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to on re-entering her father's house?" the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and "Not yet." as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own pound a week." keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project "It missed him, then?" the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not legal crime." Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose good-night and bustled off upon her way. home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and "'Very good.' your room." magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover his grey eyes. the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." The telegram which we eventually received came late one night rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as it." father's place of business?" across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that appeared upon the scene." hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. few hundred pounds.' "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and "It was a confession," I ejaculated. "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put "That also I could fathom." "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular or in danger--" McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 "Not I." assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until wedding?" morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that speckled band?" with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help arrangements." "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned see a sister of mine apply for." caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the "It certainly sounds feasible." "'Yes, I promise.' "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an drawing your inferences." yourselves in at night?" galvanised. Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked "Yes, it would be as well." it means?" "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at bare slabs of marble. confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning "The gentleman I describe." scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do weighed down with some great anxiety. of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the answer." thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" forbidden door. a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able "Absolutely?" being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive "I have seen the police." ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, breakfast and whispered something to her husband. deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An girl said." "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent questioning and rather startled gaze. deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. "Why, it's a dummy," said he. imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof "Yes, sir." "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my which it had come upon my father." dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am business?" distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." our word." But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had "Bought." There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he "Your presence might be invaluable." paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you fluttered off among the others. eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every