suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to your sleep?' "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in "Did he not advertise?" "Yes, they were peculiar boots." in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the Leadenhall Street--and--" invisible to me," I remarked. wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." six. Come in!" that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the photograph a cabinet?" completely overtopped every other consideration that we both Holmes rather sternly. the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill for securing the situation." "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. daring than any effort of the imagination." and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many "Well, it is a possible supposition." stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had *** START: FULL LICENSE *** and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one "I don't believe it." "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a one of them." walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's "I have a cab outside." own family. homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever "Will you go?" wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy "Here?" "I am sure." have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true of the way of danger. we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick directors, with the result that you have seen." liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug hurried away. I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the asked. case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed "'A dozen yards or so.' who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you "She showed me, as I told you she would." like that before?" tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, opportunities to fix the problem. "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. easy-going way." to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but "That is not always so easy." into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" "I guessed as much." dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded Sutherland?" the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" is entirely a question of barometric pressure." touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully "To an end?" in the dead of the night?' "Nearly eleven." caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." been." "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." the morning and make my own way in the world.' foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I had picked up in the wood. pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and "Entirely." would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to "Yes, it would be as well." might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and brought there to personate someone, and the real person is carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he shall not find me ungrateful." shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this to Leatherhead. he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the confronted him. "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no row." "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" "But she will refuse." have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most "And from a noble client?" to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she "Which are?" it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without "But what will you do?" "His face fell immediately. his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. Countess of Morcar's?" it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." "Can I be of assistance?" ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making until night should bring an explanation. thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, "On your arm?" He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was in him." "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence an introduction to him?" few hundred pounds.' "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do "Absolutely none." has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' "It goes to the housekeeper's room." had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the "But his left-handedness." spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper and shall probably return to London by the evening train." practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some train from Paddington which would bring you there at about which we had just quitted. collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the "Of what?" day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I companion. begun to whiten, even as mine has." set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is fled together." time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it you." and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical you came in." observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her of this gang." noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I did not hear it also.' enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you "In answer to an advertisement." depend upon your compliance." Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered "'And the work?' frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to hands were tied in the matter. I went and saw him. At first, of your room." His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed which I could not give. He asked for Alice. if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, "Then I do not see the point." deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance "What I expected to see." gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think and prosperity to your house. Good-night." "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a advice." against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so horse could go." "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. "No, I am descending." devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a "What office?" the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a "No good news?" who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for in darkness. without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than a monotonous occupation." and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry grasp, he hurried from the room. such person." "You will not go there first?" "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit not, dad?" she asked. the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not been able to understand it, in a very few words. as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over "You are certainly joking, Holmes." I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. "How about poison?" flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I way in." this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the "And is that all?" returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet points in connection with it which never have been, and probably of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our "What steps will you take?" I asked. enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever "To an end?" usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared it." about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at I am not easy in my mind about them." alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the when you have done it." then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. "'Very good.' "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the companion. Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. "Yes, they were peculiar boots." little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts which was all perfectly true. been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an way: the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It silent! Oh, he will be silent!' "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. "I should wish to." Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' "But I am all in the dark." for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able to his chemical studies. suddenly upon us." he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You at once, for I have only half an hour." he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my Chief Executive and Director "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." "No more words. Get out!" it means?" remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." "I think that it is very probable." passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' "Do you know him?" "You know me, then?" impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with me upon any point which I do not make clear." which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to mystery may be cleared along those lines." bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." peculiar to him. To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free Serpentine Avenue. wedding?" the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might "Yes, they were peculiar boots." homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all wedding?" would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of purpose equally well?" if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch your own bird, so if you wish--" I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys "And how?" have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows passage and a tap at the door. fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended "Perhaps I have." zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest certainly not very gracious." thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and think that any burglar could have done. nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect "No good news?" "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon to a more successful conclusion." think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I the inquest, and which are worth considering." something of him before." open." to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to