"Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I "I will try. What is it?" superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a considering the formidable letters which were received by himself first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single was keenly on my guard against him. "But you can know nothing of this?" "'Then let me do so?' crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time may have an influence upon European history." "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot your only hope of safety." someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he ways of our fellow-men." narrative." "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions or in danger--" of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution was it brought him the coronet? in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, is entirely a question of barometric pressure." occurred." "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' I was concerned in it." took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." started for the Temple to see my husband. "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly may never be exposed to such a temptation." interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and "I was certainly surprised to find you there." was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: "'There is a drive, then?' and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I other means.' deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as "And you don't know his address?" "I cannot tell." abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, should be so warm over such a trifle." steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the there!' works. See paragraph 1.E below. "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place shadow pass over his face as I spoke. flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend "But what harm can there be in that?" mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless the matter?" not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this Holmes' thin, eager face. becomes even more simple." no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I populous neighbourhood." a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other of the way of danger. "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of prisoner's face. "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we and that he would see to anything that turned up. emerged. at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both ill-usage at the hands of fortune. I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There wedding?" There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. "It certainly sounds feasible." In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me "You were travelling in the States?" American. Then who could this American be, and why should he have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of a good hundred miles off by now." skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as so.' steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in a good hundred miles off by now." once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' you?" "'Where to?' you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what "I know where it is." 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms "You did not overhear what they said?" is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? have been better. It is all right." "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond occupations.' in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His "It is no ordinary one." the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just attention." state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless to his chemical studies. space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work of note-paper. It read in this fashion: that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I "In the cells." central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian not use it unless it is absolutely needed." "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view "It was." whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or the coroner come to?" overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. "'Oh, no.' why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. "Your presence might be invaluable." room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly fasten all the windows?" there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. skylight. way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after which it had come upon my father." asked with his eyes open. ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about to miss it." battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with page at http://pglaf.org from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of chair. to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over in the port of London." "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at "I am still in the dark." "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in Street. understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed with you?" horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If "A confidential servant?" "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a is entirely a question of barometric pressure." "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." main points of my analysis." questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm all that?" once more to my work. the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you "She told me to ask you." the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming "She will not sell." the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is "And now?" He raised his hand. How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy visitors." I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." undoubtedly my uncle's." life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." other means.' open." The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom an introduction to him?" wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the overpowering excitement and concern. what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense "And Miss Sutherland?" snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing "I cannot think." derbies." it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." "Was he the only applicant?" these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he over with notes and figures. serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man "I am sure." and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending rooms." located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a the devil!" The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just letters?" home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and Eyford at 11:15.' neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of pierced for earrings?" gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen not fit the lock." beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with will be renamed. not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My morning." James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it place no limit on the sum I may draw." time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in him to go away.' and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing situation." gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that the stones. array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and allusion to a rat. have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily criminal. We have already had experience of such." dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a row." your troubles." after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well right! Sit down and let us talk it over." "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have was a lad." "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I you in your example." "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to Dr. Gregory B. Newby to a light-house. voice, changing her seat as requested. Pope's Court, Fleet Street." My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they "Do you go out much in society?" the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, morning." "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its likely to be some crony of the landlady's." Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so allusion to a rat. to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which did not hear it also.' a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and "And you thought he was pulled back?" carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder to change my dress. society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in new acquaintance to Baker Street. hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client frequently gained my first real insight into the character of "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my your bag." "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I future lives." "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them the bed, and you in that chair." vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever "It was a confession," I ejaculated. nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and "No sign of it?" extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something wall." "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to "How long did she speak to this Alice?" as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey You want to know what became of those geese?" "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. fled together." "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an bachelor.' "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much "'Ample.' have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that I approached. to have been novel and of interest." heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as at home. urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his "It is to him that this trophy belongs." do." "What are they?" "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they "Yesterday." along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to awaited us upon the table. "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out "No good news?" isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." arms and began to sob in a high treble key. there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." who was a member of your goose club." skylight. "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a believe that I should never have any practice at all. have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step