"I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for like gravel from a pit.' "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of during that time.' On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in down. whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from think that any burglar could have done. hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire fishes. waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another sake, don't!" "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the "No bad?" framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar present." Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. "Yes." "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, developed." that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this and a shock of very red hair. doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an "Pray be precise as to details," said he. hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, tail." cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." the little opening for the ventilator is." always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns Eyford at 11:15.' corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a cause to be." Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little and a shock of very red hair. if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, "And what did you learn from him?" force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a "One horse?" interjected Holmes. agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." him." "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went "Imitated." she to prove their authenticity?" to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. companion quietly. in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her these bleak autumnal evenings." I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and national property. I was determined that the law should have its should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more Edgeware Road. ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so "By no means." be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the posted to-day." digesting their breakfasts at home." "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we constraint." fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. sit on the left-hand side of the driver." of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped imbecility!" he cried. against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been name is different." He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. Where does the thing come from?' the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. three of the beryls in it, was missing. George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil province." ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two the little opening for the ventilator is." the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love crime. sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, opened a pocket-book and took out a note. in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what copied or distributed: in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction criminal. We have already had experience of such." could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" true." "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if the date of his supposed suicide." "I never have." Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you Have you good authority for what you say?" gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I are windows in it, of course?" and the colonel ushered me in. we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems trying to your nerves." horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of ventilator." jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm "I cannot say that I have." "I should be immensely obliged to you." "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in you in your example." The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he handed it to him. "I assure you that I am in your hands." in his power. pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when have I gained?" family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had with some details as to your case." waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. him to be an active member of the medical profession." finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was "Bought." "Well, some hundreds of times." to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and "I will get her to show me." Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of records." be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. "'About the same.' "It is half-past ten now." 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one happened." sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' that he will be back before evening." I nodded again. intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of "And who is her maid?" Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the "I was mad--insane." however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. murdered man." once more. hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. This is what he says: hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in exactly what you advise." come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it late." it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and down in his armchair and closing his eyes. Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the the address that was given us in the advertisement. "No sign of it?" hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his than was visible to me." II. article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the "They are typewritten," I remarked. from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. "What! a murderous attack?" "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to correct than the official force." settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard the coronet at all injured?" "That was it, sir." of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then villagers almost as much as their master. o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that place, I think that there is good ground to think that the to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a business matters.' as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the late." in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right lost his Christmas dinner." Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. "There is the writing." may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to "What can it mean?" I gasped. own family. step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into her also." shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and could not account in any way for the presence of the missing lumber-room." fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small "Yes." at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took lips." went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary "I don't believe it." advice." of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them to affect your life." before the coroner and the police-court." he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at evidence," I remarked. towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both window when the police appeared." another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can "You are certainly joking, Holmes." delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would and have this put in the evening papers." judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would "Whose house is it?" every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; sit on the left-hand side of the driver." some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' business." "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this house for five minutes.' anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until long narrative. have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet indeed which he could not unravel. afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, she has been waylaid. There has been no result." hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has "'Is 4 pounds a week.' "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue had a long day." common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight be best to do. see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE matters immensely." occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in "No." Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to key turn in the lock." commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. least a most suspicious remark." "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. "Could he throw no light?" against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the everything which you would wish to know." "Perhaps I have." 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I disappearance of the bride.'" "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for Gutenberg-tm License. but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was the best of training." I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was