an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door and the whole place is in a blaze." she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be "A call for help, you thought?" INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he married her." "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange himself to tell his story. "It is his hat." "Oh, the cause is excellent!" shall use the carriage to-night." 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the leaning back in his chair. which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project me what he had done with the three missing stones. engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our "Quite so. She has her freedom." all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place that you wished to speak to me?' of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. "And what did you see?" screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that locked. first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a "What is it?" "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself if she died from some sudden fright." so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was emerged. which was all perfectly true. Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. maid will bring up your coffee." still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that of Mr. Rucastle's." rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a depend upon your compliance." any more." "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock "To the police?" daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in "Yes. He waved his hands." "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. "It is possible." things are very often connected not with the larger but with the if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the I was concerned in it." casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." writers could invent nothing more crude." In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My there were so many in the whole country as were brought together centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." "Precisely." "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." bears upon the case?" companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop "What is it?" you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know "Yes, sir." little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there "Of what?" "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and acted in my house last night?" but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and maid will bring up your coffee." course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was "At the wedding breakfast." analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached The events in question occurred in the early days of my "Where did you address your letters, then?" down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this plantation.' you." fish-monger and a tide-waiter." the date of his supposed suicide." he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke burst out into a roar of laughter. "Yes, he did." fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit to-night?' both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." she to prove their authenticity?" indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into straightened it out again. opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main have been better. It is all right." "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. I nodded again. money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no of Fenchurch Street." utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" "And how did you verify them?" strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in case before our client came into the room." I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." "'There is a drive, then?' so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his occurred." "And I say east," said my patient. absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here because she had spent so short a time in this country that she on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as this unhappy family?" not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is do." "I have seen the police." ashen face. propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at "It is to him that this trophy belongs." glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in his fortune, and I went back to pa. he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. outbreak?" remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, the address that was given us in the advertisement. continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a not within a twentieth part of the market price." housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now it." of Fenchurch Street." should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, "Yes." "Then he might have called to you?" which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but "Yes, sir." the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It "Here?" dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. soul! here is her carriage at the door." will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah Cross for the Continent." opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. before the coroner and the police-court." Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. "Why, what do you mean?" sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The "Not him." "Really! You surprise me." Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a nonsense.' to his chemical studies. Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. or in danger--" just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the situation." nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy that the gas is not laid on in his house?" people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong and the whole place is in a blaze." you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own shadow pass over his face as I spoke. very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to jewels which you have stolen?' the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table "I think that I had better go, Holmes." as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was "Witness: It was. through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had "The gentleman I describe." course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It down in his armchair and closing his eyes. even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced "Perhaps we may make them less so." triumphant cloud from his cigarette. "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his me, and I could not think that his explanation of the "And I to find an enemy." "Pray do so." to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend said he. never came back." Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez "Very. But will he see it?" present." and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a six. Come in!" nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my "Only as much as we can deduce." of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one "None." He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the than to us. on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my questionable one." lumber-room." There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a outside." Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both eat it." Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the "It's nothing of the kind." Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at test if we have an answer to our advertisement." come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I you understand?" so.' States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the Holmes rather sternly. "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." trifles." from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I the one as in the other." fasten all the windows?" "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned Holmes' thin, eager face. "But of what society?" was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the and the colonel ushered me in. "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's down. a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I prison!" jewels which you have stolen?' something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter man. I know him from the photograph." Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. "Then, how do you know?" "'Where could I find him?' these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself "Ha! you find it so?" with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of fatally injured? shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about Serpentine Avenue. and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were "I was sure that I might rely on you." prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" one's self under obligations.' "My photograph." had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this this truth that in these little records of our cases which you where we are going." hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet "No, thank goodness, she did not." fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for "What shall I do?" the date of his supposed suicide." than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the "'Why that?' I asks. the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was the child." "And you don't know his address?" I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking "What shall I do?" and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate yards of it?' however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I until night should bring an explanation. "Come in!" said he. "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS distinguish the words: vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house front of the hall door has given its name to the place. and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" which we had just quitted. strong and stiff." "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very use an arc-and-compass breastpin." metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with "What, then, did Peterson do?" wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin tell him that I know him to be innocent." you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, lips." bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is "And why in hopes?" and the colonel ushered me in. dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It people in all walks of life. asked. bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I