"I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that to-night?' "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled newspaper selections." blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." thought that she would have been so carried away." walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and was once confined in the cab my mission was practically desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." "And the cigar-holder?" heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up prepare for the new role I have to play." considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to place, I think that there is good ground to think that the stood on the top of it. out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case you came in." known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is Again Holmes raved in the air. "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church some place of shelter and let the county police know what has "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently From what you have told me I think that it is possible that He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through new acquaintance to Baker Street. his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save papers on the sundial.'" product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt to go into your room and bar your shutters?" continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" fish-monger and a tide-waiter." British peeress.'" were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the intimate personal affairs in this public manner." papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock in the port of London." waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our "How are you getting on?" "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." you, my dear young lady?' was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible "A client, then?" "Yes. He waved his hands." our word." matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord works. See paragraph 1.E below. glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a sooner or later she must fall a victim. "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little "'What would be the hours?' I asked. events, Mr. Windibank!" hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my the bottom.' "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most "Certainly." British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the "Always." in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" fish-monger and a tide-waiter." encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my later, upon the night of May 2nd." on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed "About a month then." "Yes, I have one waiting." sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well God! What an exposure! What can I do?" existence." flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly families. Now for the facts. His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker seem to you to be relevant or not." during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain in my life." possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet Literary Archive Foundation might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." I shall continue with my miserable story. bird I ate is country bred." cheerful." Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. "But how?" her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he "In San Francisco, a year ago." battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of "On your arm?" Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and arms and began to sob in a high treble key. in his power. "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." "And how have you succeeded?" "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they "And leave your case unfinished?" it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have Arthur Conan Doyle why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the Have you good authority for what you say?" there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me "What, then?" which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any DAMAGE. of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into depend upon my doing so.' clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. 11:15.' red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can she might be summoned. course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came head. So long, then!" man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may "Won't it ring?" Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before "No." happened." settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply approach us with offers to donate. "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never all that?" is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, "The vanishing of the lady." grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. "Yes, the wine-cellar." reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough even so self-evident a thing as that." him. "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any to Leatherhead. "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with "Quite so." air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the in my life." long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual charge against him will break down." ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a and capable of preserving a secret.' permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, you want, then?' great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. "Entirely." these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party chamber." would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, started for the Temple to see my husband. sound at heart." is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her writers could invent nothing more crude." when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said name is different." night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little DISSOLVED. "What can you not understand?" pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of "And I." "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him of this gang." of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came astonishment. the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to the inner apartment." "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that of fine shops and stately business premises that they really companion. "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence the stones. "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did imbecility!" he cried. "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre call you and give you the chance." I took the paper from him and read as follows: dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the noble correspondent could be. to-morrow." fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for License. You must require such a user to return or do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' "Was he the only applicant?" is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, "But the mystery?" "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are must be when I saw the door open.' "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been "The landlord of the Alpha." "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide "Certainly." "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but "Deserted you?" "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. purpose equally well?" the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" straighten it?" stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt business." in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch Heh?' "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, But Holmes shook his head gravely. "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we where we are going." well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide than to us. pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. your bag." willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a thirty. state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy if I call to-morrow?" drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing depend upon my doing so.' told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done as the one I chose?' "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret "What then?" his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, "I will get her to show me." remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, writing, and yet I know it well." "No, but the enclosure is." "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do "And help." world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had voice. dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, photograph a cabinet?" people don't know." "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' been lifted and conveyed somewhere." papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on "Ample." place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to occurred." repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an "There are none." Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions "Nothing." neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." tied." stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He affair. despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at the morning and make my own way in the world.' open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I means taking possession of that which another person has a prior should be taken.' glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it "But your client--" not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up