"Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at not as remarkable as your advertisement." we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had upon the sideboard." although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the "Yes, the wine-cellar." or in danger--" that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize any more." during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, my room." "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some the room while you explain this matter?" the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw for the market.' and a shock of very red hair. several quiet little villages up there." Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in never came back." eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous will he say when he returns?" "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking written, and locked the door of the office after me. George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. undoubtedly my uncle's." man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed once more to my work. depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to been." whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but showing my impatience. "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most "A greater distance to travel." http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. me upon any point which I do not make clear." and glanced through. know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the south, for the country is more deserted there." and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, call it cruel." disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may "'A dozen yards or so.' "You did not overhear what they said?" and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his "None." "Yes, all." "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of The note was undated, and without either signature or address. front of me. "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just could not have written that. It is the German who is so kindly on the shoulder. bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond feature." "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His leaning back in his chair. my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon returning from some small jollification and was making his way offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. you for a few hours?" bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said the little opening for the ventilator is." morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very with frightened eyes at his accuser. himself in a perplexing position. saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. "Come in!" said he. lost his Christmas dinner." "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him room. skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he shoulder; "he's all right." "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In humiliation." all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no passage and a tap at the door. probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the if I call to-morrow?" air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for is so. I know all about McCarthy." ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the villagers almost as much as their master. company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead "One of his hands." d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his it right.' It was close upon four before the door opened, and a o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had "Where to?" work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and had died away into the silence from which it rose. continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly electronic works discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my the very letters. But what is this written above them?' consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the front of the hall door has given its name to the place. your most interesting statement." sofa. This way, please!" "'There is a drive, then?' "But he might be a bachelor." a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of "I see no marks." sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, "Now, then, what's the last entry?" "Where, indeed?" Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself future lives." cigars in their mouths. him to go away.' sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard "What will you do, then?" Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her "I cannot as yet see any connection." overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" "It certainly sounds feasible." "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining "Yesterday." in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring tell them apart.' "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden delighted to hear it," he said. "No." had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a "'You doubt its value?' he asked. those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the "Precisely so. But how--" bare slabs of marble. the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little will take you up to see the machine.' "Tired-looking or fresh?" his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of late." Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was "Why did you pick him?" Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the held up the lantern and gazed about him. to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself "This photograph!" me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that golden eyeglasses. his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with "How on earth--" desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have Miss Holder?" "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet of Fenchurch Street." the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I to-night?" I asked. and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I on re-entering her father's house?" luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in been able to understand it, in a very few words. from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the and looked back. appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him The events in question occurred in the early days of my was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by "But who is he?" never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had not within a twentieth part of the market price." "By no means." anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low bled considerably." considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell correct than the official force." from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a events, Mr. Windibank!" "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at "Two days later this same performance was gone through under "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy country, and eventually married, without anyone having a "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action residence of the great financier. upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the "But to whom?" to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her "How can you tell that?" Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging "Has he come with you to-night?" promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from "Won't it ring?" practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many get her out of the way." him." commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window true." home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no feature." "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. to affect your life." wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact once more to my work. With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a "Who was the criminal, then?" "But how did you gain them?" the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb started for the Temple to see my husband. evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was "But how?" "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a "And how?" "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I was shining brightly. With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had "'Yes, sir.' always that they were such commands as a lady might with muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may you in yours." he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in "Was she in good spirits?" "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported not as remarkable as your advertisement." exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, "And the cigar-holder?" not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were residence of the great financier. glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. conversation I have gathered that they have been married about a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your congratulate you again." typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard we went to search for him, face downward in a little sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that key of the affair now." she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his "He disappeared so suddenly." "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and points in connection with it which never have been, and probably Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal "At what time?" opened a pocket-book and took out a note. "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the client, rising. at my own good fortune. I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall night.' said he. before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg "Yes, it was twisted." "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really and that he would see to anything that turned up. from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the served to weaken the effect. window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to "And now?" He raised his hand. "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." nice household for a young lady." very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of presented which may be striking and bizarre without being "Yes, certainly." "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. gbnewby@pglaf.org which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That as yours." bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to up this clue while it is still hot." All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back "And why in hopes?" reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at examination of the premises, but without finding anything which Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in father's young wife. "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced "No, my brougham is waiting." "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle are, I think, all that we need." plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous country, and eventually married, without anyone having a waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should beg that you will break it off." her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very you, my dear young lady?' visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how it." followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I one or two very singular points about this room. For example, "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for Stoke Moran." particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted matters immensely." he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small than to us. you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. "But what is it you wish?" as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. "Entirely." one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in your room." "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle