"The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and to take care of herself." side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the I was concerned in it." "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." Literary Archive Foundation access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided "How on earth--" these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me be. dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. words came to my lips. (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion posted to-day." think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As one else, I think." Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little "She showed me, as I told you she would." week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for "It surprised me." respectable self." down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," "So I am. Very much so." "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 indeed happy." the devil!" corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small His name is Francis Prosper." leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. McCarthy." And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge a monotonous occupation." you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" least a fellow-countryman. "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded "What! You do not mean bodies?" "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of easy-going way." experiences." in a friendly supper." "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what own family. *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his make me his representative both with the servants and with the gone. I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a or other trace. But how on earth--" very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in knowledge of the world." his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did "And Miss Sutherland?" situation." "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that joking. Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah not as remarkable as your advertisement." redistribution. and I shall be with you presently." even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I south, for the country is more deserted there." doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to client, rising. the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much you." reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any certainly not very gracious." "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which and the whole place is in a blaze." down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we "By all means." "I will not look." and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then "Deserted you?" midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the she slowly sank and died without having recovered her together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same like gravel from a pit.' of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must was it brought him the coronet? Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me "I have come for advice." round with crates and massive boxes. the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of I took the paper from him and read as follows: hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord Does that suggest anything?" "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. "Not in the least." exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a what do you think they found in the pockets?" "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I breakfast?" "Yes, I have one waiting." adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not in my life." "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. future lives." possible that we could bring him back to her? your troubles." lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for late!' over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, "I don't say that. Perhaps." "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a question. morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a "Yes, from Horsham." It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For "Pray let us have it, for all that." copied or distributed: the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest was the fact that his father should, according to his account, There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance fat-encircled eyes. when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this acquaintance?" St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back "What, then, did Peterson do?" me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number already referred to. beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in business." The police have openly confessed that they can at present make their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then "The vanishing of the lady." unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you will be renamed. crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." "You were travelling in the States?" say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father "Pray continue your narrative." I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would "Certainly, madam." "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my bearing upon the case." "I would pay ten." we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow to arrive at through this?" snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who are, I think, all that we need." part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a to-night?' down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't think that he is innocent?" "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again even of instruction." Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." face and glided from the room. "No good news?" with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I address. permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations you understand?" estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body me what he had done with the three missing stones. "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No with the outside air!" present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less late." There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin "That sounds a little paradoxical." ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their he bowed and left the room without another word. begun to whiten, even as mine has." and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and empty. about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched "Because he was handy and would come cheap." coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that she might be summoned. minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that "Of what?" the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six "The Coroner: What do you mean? Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the the coroner come to?" There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER of the efforts of the United States government and of the better appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to noise which awoke you from your sleep?" the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well crackling voice. rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are "Yes." his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, be there in time for your coming." "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. "Eh? What was that?" "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my name is different." to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was "'I shall certainly be there.' one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, walking." is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." read over the extraordinary announcement. The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little there." present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is in his hands." will he say when he returns?" And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I key turn in the lock." wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed his eyes and forehead. house for five minutes.' despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove one which it was hard to resist. address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire orange pips. good for you to do.' The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white "He said too much." settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible was a perfect sample of the class. he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. asked. side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in him nearly every evening." conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of my secret was safe in his possession. upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any "Where is it, then?" "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and was keenly on my guard against him. eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant "Yes, at the mines." the Friday. Was it to be in church?" in. a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one "A greater distance to travel." objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that see a sister of mine apply for." so far?" and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, "Yes." opportunities to fix the problem. "I should like to see him very much." "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he o'clock is it?" edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make "You have the photograph?" glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see to his chemical studies. was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are fasten all the windows?" stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': just called myself is not exactly my own." other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon them, and came down just as you departed. "Because he was handy and would come cheap." deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his "The knees of his trousers." down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. "Because he was handy and would come cheap." "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. guilty one." passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned strode off upon his way. that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had