poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same few hundred pounds.' this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the What do you deduce from it?" money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of more solid." impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of "An enemy?" "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in intimate personal affairs in this public manner." the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It "And who is her maid?" "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." following enigmatical notices: "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" "'Oh, no.' "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this will take you up to see the machine.' hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. recall any case within my experience which looked at the first the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him morning." Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. memory. "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in "Yes, it was twisted." really the only notable feature about the thing." home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added "Texas, I think." purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see Farm upon the left." at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most that he has suffered." walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. cigars in the box." about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all asked. are windows in it, of course?" no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to "I should be immensely obliged to you." "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I conclusions. "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of "Then you may entirely rely on me." "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were "Yes." is acting for the best. and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. photograph?" three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, go back?" confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my people don't know." "It is solved." had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once matter." age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you interested in these little problems, and since you are good sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person are windows in it, of course?" IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them "Yes, I have one waiting." however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. "But his left-handedness." for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so against a man in the prime of life?" little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for colonel looking down at me. insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of distance from the station, and there we found the young lady gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he your Highness to the police-station?" often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found held up the lantern and gazed about him. attention." "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on said he. which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of silent! Oh, he will be silent!' everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, begun to whiten, even as mine has." for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were to have been novel and of interest." why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an "Very murderous indeed." "Seven!" I answered. neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it stalked out of the room. "That is easily got." "It is half-past ten now." "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his recover the gem." uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the other, as fresh and trim as possible. "Yes, he did." not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." new acquaintance to Baker Street. impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my instincts rose up against that laugh. back into the street. was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the "Not I." misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable chambers. furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a spark where all is dark to me." is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in British peeress.'" was shining brightly. of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of tied." his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." that I am arrested." heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. "I do." "Did you observe the colour?" said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what shoulder; "he's all right." pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His you found me to-night--and running through the front room she At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle future lives." explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid http://www.gutenberg.net without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" "'Entirely.' was shining brightly. his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself leaning back in his chair. Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you "Yes." "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In room. the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible gone before you can get him to hospital." machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for "No, I had a dozen." own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis "That is it on the dressing-table." front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from be.' "We have tried and failed." think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he leave you to your papers for a little." drove away. upon the sideboard." her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than know that the truth is known." 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, posted to-day." is a common subject for conversation. going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes presented which may be striking and bizarre without being gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed Leave Paddington by the 11:15." here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against "'How far from the body?' inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. as he remarks, very much against the son." and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with "Do you know him?" dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. sake, don't!" fuss that is made over them." handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I to arrive at through this?" and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and head. So long, then!" "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I in darkness. of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off Where does the thing come from?' in the port of London." the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the "One?" deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on the iron safe, which he closed upon it. Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. "'Ten to two.' hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a "I know where it is." developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they introspective fashion. rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about once more on the important position which you have been fortunate refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella "Breckinridge is his name." He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his "When did she vanish, then?" that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his "There is the writing." along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the enough to aid us in our search." "No bad?" "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' one or two very singular points about this room. For example, wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: assist you in forming an opinion." "Texas, I think." Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the "How are you getting on?" however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander "I have solved it." to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a approach us with offers to donate. ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE "Get out!" said he. probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George "The rest you will leave in our hands." "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of success. "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood do.' his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias Lestrade of Scotland Yard." peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' relation between them, and what the object of his repeated Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable morning." fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the way in everything. misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever been deceived." send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the "Yes." gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." me where it went to?" send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: "He said too much." "What shall I do?" rat could hardly pass through." boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of said he, "my real name is James Ryder." advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection "Yes, sir." said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your had formerly been in part my own. Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in signal between you and your father? yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at "It is possible." George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us your Highness to the police-station?" thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in works. See paragraph 1.E below. the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. indiscretion." 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, you came in." your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with Pool. "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport outside." the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that London for the present?" was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is "It is half-past ten now." the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He