takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the south, for the country is more deserted there." learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so obstinate." galvanised. disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black back into the street. the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left careless servant girl?" cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is 1.F. to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he least a most suspicious remark." and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us to go into your room and bar your shutters?" floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush "Stolen." puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down woven round him. story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your I am not easy in my mind about them." eavesdroppers?' is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. eat it." The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and "Was there a secret marriage?" you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm it right.' months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had back into the street. DISSOLVED. cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that the devil!" despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and "What steps will you take?" I asked. room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able something of him before." while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to in the port of London." shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." Project Gutenberg-tm works. upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery "No. What a strange idea!" her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 "What do you mean?" prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point "At half-wages, in fact." the very letters. But what is this written above them?' read it out to me." "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may distinguish the words: look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the "Then I shall certainly come." the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a coat-tails." statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing "Entirely." "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This "A greater distance to travel." way: "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of quick march!" the armchair which I pushed forward for him. was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. his face. figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to "What! You do not mean bodies?" "To the police?" of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, "Nothing." affection." of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about "That is unusual in a young girl." Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came garden below. at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the "My opinion is in no way altered." question. call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with "He slept on the premises." front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. "Yes." that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had "And why in hopes?" laugh and put his lips to my ear. 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must "It is possible." possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa see me here to avoid scandal." time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to very morning of my second wedding." As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I walking." the coronet in his hands?" including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have him nearly every evening." that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards constraint." strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my "What! a murderous attack?" half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the taking in every detail of the apartment. "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining awkward doing business with an alias." course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, "I would pay ten." trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those crowd. from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by whole matter to your consideration." travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the Lestrade of Scotland Yard." hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We think that he is innocent?" have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe "She showed me, as I told you she would." of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I recall any case within my experience which looked at the first that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every "That is it on the dressing-table." matter." interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he upon the white wrist. the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do questioning and rather startled gaze. photograph?" call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off was it brought him the coronet? "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your "I don't say that. Perhaps." "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a not fit the lock." cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." Sholtos." a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, "The gentleman I describe." "And that is--" believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." some water from a caraffe. from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a again." "Imitated." the side-table." He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. the very morning of the wedding." "Here?" Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself lumber-room." had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that society." wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be "Look there!" said he. Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have "But his lameness?" Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. which are rolled in Rotterdam." asked. next day. may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." "It looks newer than the other things?" "Very well, sir. And this stone?" that I may have something better before very many minutes are grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life "Why? What do you mean?" There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, "What then?" particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those the coroner come to?" THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I head. So long, then!" Holmes' thin, eager face. freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had a suggestive one." he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of "None." outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense gbnewby@pglaf.org arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was "'Entirely.' young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had page at http://pglaf.org believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are "Deserted you?" There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking in the hope of finding them." Munro.' "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. to a more successful conclusion." and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had "You have compromised yourself seriously." my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing gone. "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and kindly on the shoulder. is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as who was a member of your goose club." "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular "Ten will be early enough." has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. lids now and glanced across at his visitor. "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a humiliation." his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock John Swain, of St. Augustine. Sholtos." astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him breakfast and whispered something to her husband. "No." cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** "We must have a cab." "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would "And that is--" thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there "Dr. Becher's." been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black happened." conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I pound a week." and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," the room while you explain this matter?" commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss developed." "Nothing." everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. of the way of danger. chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at upon the shelf for the interim." was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the Sholtos." Eyford at 11:15.' present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings information in his hands the value of which he did not himself we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, "Well, but China?" voice. "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by "Yes?" A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, was a lad." other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, "I cannot imagine." horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening "And when will you call?" existence." "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. "Just look it up, then." "It was a confession," I ejaculated. for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his "How did you deduce the select?" that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I Munro.' "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" "No." would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the "You have the photograph?" him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that help us in this matter." signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left him, that man would not have given me such complete information I am not easy in my mind about them." surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you