"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version events than those which have happened in my own family." when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of views." while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the only touch the interest." favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by companion. she has been waylaid. There has been no result." Holmes' thin, eager face. sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked back alive. was used.' "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should him." himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that the room while you explain this matter?" should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over started for the Temple to see my husband. my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he which are rolled in Rotterdam." "Always." remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." "To an English lawyer named Norton." his huge brown hands. have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is "Stoke Moran?" said he. "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she them, and came down just as you departed. before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address "She will not sell." the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered wall." were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, "Ample." her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the not come at once?" passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow voice. "No, thank goodness, she did not." into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a "I assure you that I am in your hands." we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in were new raised from a basin. "Then I shall certainly come." that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then "If so, much may have happened between." The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of fluttered off among the others. see me here to avoid scandal." so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped are, and they are waiting for us." smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point that I can to serve you." sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." "And how did you find out?" With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the "I answered that I had not. "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" your troubles." That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one his wife has ceased to love him." definite end. friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. "I came to find a friend." 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips what do you think they found in the pockets?" dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached this man was intellectual?" do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, "Entirely." "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." "That is possible." When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the business came to an end." one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" that?' these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be "Yes, there are nearly always some there." hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a His smile broadened. Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her about here speaks of his kindness to him." soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you "But how?" "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, you?' I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his "'Stolen!' he cried. trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone "Will you go?" "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in exactly what you advise." How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a searched, without anything being found which could incriminate have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet important." was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King upon an income of about 60 pounds." Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of "So I am. Very much so." you want, then?' allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried fear." "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his the coroner come to?" criminal. We have already had experience of such." the Red-headed League." LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what the matter?" attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" followed. broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after "Very truly yours, afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." "It is very clear." To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton "I was certainly surprised to find you there." simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a wedding?" "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived straighten it?" house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced detained." could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly foresight and the moral retrogression?" hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he wife's character?" "I don't say that. Perhaps." is so. I know all about McCarthy." may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from side. is now desirous of getting those letters back." second window is the one that I jumped from." on re-entering her father's house?" like gravel from a pit.' because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the row." fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold on in his house." burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at public press." without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." true." reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her him. If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling "Yes." He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, "An accident, I presume?" "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods something of him before." felt?" the warnings." quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken things are very often connected not with the larger but with the street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen "It came here." forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been of receipt of the work. "Yes, but only for you and me." quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over "Yes." I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I for securing the situation." dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had open." It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her go--none." opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he test if we have an answer to our advertisement." spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man "'Then let me do so?' silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the and it need not interfere very much with one's other "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my clanging. residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his never came back." over his head with a sweet womanly caress. desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. absorbing." remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the "But who is he?" on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set towards the blaze. should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp "Stolen." building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really During two years I have had three consultations and one small pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, I shall continue with my miserable story. place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried "Yes." "I am to be neutral?" "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an "Dirty?" from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." south, for the country is more deserted there." say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper "You saw the ventilator, too?" behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. question," said Holmes, smiling. down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder is," said he presently: on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, "How can you tell that?" and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, 11:15.' so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. "Ample." the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a introspective fashion. note?" "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has "And Miss Sutherland?" and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. to talk it over. opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." "This photograph!" line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal most interesting one." "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the "Yes." would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The his fortune, and I went back to pa. sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we the best of training." sit on the left-hand side of the driver." "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible cup of tea. While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we the inner apartment." It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." fasten all the windows?" whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." character. while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his "Was the window open?" delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no troubles have been weighing upon his mind. Street. back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the stood on the top of it. with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over before the coroner and the police-court." "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on observed. sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who "From his hat?" was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" McCarthy's innocence. the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk spare." in his power. he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late "You have compromised yourself seriously." "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the