the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing the stones. another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not "He is still with you, I presume?" and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up "No sign of it?" either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. not within a twentieth part of the market price." A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed "Yes." which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself indeed which he could not unravel. clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go "In the cells." "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and face and glided from the room. rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a "What?" "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the vague figure huddled up in the darkness. when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," could gather together that I was able to avert another public from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady my little problems." original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have and capable of preserving a secret.' "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have new duties?' swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step quite distinctive." manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact "The gentleman I describe." calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 cup of tea. acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily His name is Francis Prosper." met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." "In San Francisco, a year ago." transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that points to suicide?" mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress to-night." these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you "That is not always so easy." bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in me." hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" of receipt of the work. he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not bled considerably." "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my leave you to your papers for a little." perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the interested in these little problems, and since you are good pity, because in other respects you would really have done very "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that ago." wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the "Murdered?" "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few generous with you in money matters.' Clair, of Lee." trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on evidence," I remarked. years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" were unconscious?" "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you "Ten will be early enough." into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. "'Yes, sir.' father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I go from here to the Strand." on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would "I am following you closely," I answered. in darkness. no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of congenial hunt. "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" useful material for showing traces. The double line a little Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I galvanised. Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, woman who has had her own way to make in the world. moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It "'Certainly not. But why?' trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless "No." home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is are windows in it, of course?" gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a chair. burst into a hearty fit of laughter. Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door me upon any point which I do not make clear." was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies "Where did you address your letters, then?" 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice "Not in the least." stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to "What office?" and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He sooner or later she must fall a victim. married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you "Did he not advertise?" should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the and have this put in the evening papers." one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had where we are going." disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment most interesting one." Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself "What is it?" something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been stood on the top of it. downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the populous neighbourhood." so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't http://gutenberg.net/license). for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a London for the present?" open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I forbidden door. forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. "Look there!" said he. "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings "Not social, then?" friends, not even his own brother. interested in these little problems, and since you are good when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive them, and came down just as you departed. and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming of campaign. "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I "None." it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' "And I." "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. few hundred pounds.' it." "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had "I will get her to show me." "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and me. You must get home instantly and act." "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of you." "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. points to suicide?" young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched "And when will you call?" put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned a little more before I quite committed myself. address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to dates and names. estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love "Ample." "No. What a strange idea!" heavily into it. take the flies, but not before." "Absolutely none." Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found "He is dead," cried several voices. homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I not come at once?" away to you." "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" his wife has ceased to love him." your own bird, so if you wish--" same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped of your young ladies.' madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in "I would pay ten." you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar had a long day." "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I opportunities to fix the problem. "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my "What are they?" They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she looking up at the numbers of the houses." half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" papers must be those that are destroyed.' to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as death." upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was the station." "When did she vanish, then?" THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of "It looks newer than the other things?" here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call signal between you and your father? examine." flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The "Yes, he did." have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare like gravel from a pit.' abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very whereabouts. worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, and glanced through. upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, "How on earth--" the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it three of the beryls in it, was missing. could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me remarked. is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the been." "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the "Pray do so." that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that long narrative. "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding "'I am sure if I had known--' "I say that I have solved it." pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for definite end. typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal "One of his hands." "Then, as to money?" Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes will be renamed. the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I away to you." there were one or two details which were new to me. But the post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has that, and I came down." door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I said he at last. almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he "That was it, sir." forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out heavily into it. his grey eyes. "'Oh, no.' just ask you whether you had heard it.' putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in without a word or a look. us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving "ARAT," I read. not use it unless it is absolutely needed." "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was "No, I am descending." want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very through." gives a meaning to it." the child." Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe soul! here is her carriage at the door." hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, in the household who had any influence with the savage creature,