hair?' is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. gentleman's clothes. His name is Francis Prosper." "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is posted to-day." age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' thirty. "No." "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the affection." the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility "And how did you find out?" at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have colonel looking down at me. "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle "Get out!" said he. "Oh, the cause is excellent!" 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of vault. "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an shoulder; "he's all right." Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. must compliment you." Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman not personally threatened." suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little enter into my head. once more. handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the away in different directions, and I went off to make my own reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing exactly what you advise." stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give derbies." detective. "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my nothing with him." little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its certainly do as you advise." "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the "I am in hopes that she does." observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she "Yes, all." providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the "The Cedars?" eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight "Thank you. And your address?" his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body so far?" not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry "And leave your case unfinished?" "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own "Absolutely none." "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. weapon." pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more call for it in person on Monday morning.' us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did Dr. Gregory B. Newby tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he "Pray tell us what has happened to you." half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his an introduction to him?" as he folded up the epistle. "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the little adventures." well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey wife's character?" broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had how narrow had been my escape. round with crates and massive boxes. a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. cause to be." "And your mother is alive?" call for it in person on Monday morning.' her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the For additional contact information: adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which forbidden door. "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. "I do." the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. "'I am sure if I had known--' every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through "It is no ordinary one." "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the individual and becomes the badge of a society." Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is "So I heard. You have him here?" As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for "You have compromised yourself seriously." Heh?' "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am DISSOLVED. "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black golden eyeglasses. found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, "So I heard. You have him here?" "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be "Yes." considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up with you alone." "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have held up the lantern and gazed about him. ago." For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to constraint." man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying purpose equally well?" labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest "'Yes.' acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I "I shall be delighted." conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE "Dirty?" Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I hour?' "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it of your young ladies.' "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see "Where is it, then?" walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The to-night?" I asked. parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must business." its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed http://www.gutenberg.net the little opening for the ventilator is." hardly wander." since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a is a common subject for conversation. given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of little trying to do so much typewriting?" thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I away in different directions, and I went off to make my own 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, "What! Had he lost his wife?" examine." reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a writers could invent nothing more crude." his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other him, that man would not have given me such complete information "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been had no one to advise her at such a crisis." on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." detective. just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining "And sit in the dark?" planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' morning." George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled to take care of herself." an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. into her hand at the door and which lured her within their Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of where she found matters as described by the last witness. "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the me where it went to?" not personally threatened." "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been "The King of Scandinavia." case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the what these perils are?" "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the "And Miss Sutherland?" "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well "Then he might have called to you?" Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and "And how did you find out?" There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin "'Tell me all about it,' said I. "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' she might be summoned. and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging "Was he the only applicant?" ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of his wife has ceased to love him." "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I better grown goose." "Certainly, madam." away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his stood on the top of it. "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or Pool. "One of his hands." speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in "Nearly eleven." Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, recall any case within my experience which looked at the first "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly likely to be some crony of the landlady's." it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks putting in the horse. of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of "Never to return." with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs purpose of examination. His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several coat-tails." concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the one's self under obligations.' owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, "I would give my fortune to have them back." opened a pocket-book and took out a note. instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the "Very murderous indeed." comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We point in the dark hollow of his hand. "I was afraid that you were engaged." to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I fait accompli?" little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and trying to your nerves." "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. companion quietly. "'A dozen yards or so.' indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. was the fact that his father should, according to his account, greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. Pope's Court. I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with entirely devoid of interest." "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it distinguish the words: "Not social, then?" occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the "Then I can wait in the next room." found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, "You are certainly joking, Holmes." no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of your troubles." it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and "To an English lawyer named Norton." "My last client of the sort was a king." a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the "Yes, sir." "My dear Holmes!" c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is assist you in forming an opinion." Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a throat." fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." go back?" against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should face and glided from the room. "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I States. inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the During two years I have had three consultations and one small When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a "We must sit without light. He would see it through the family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke hair?' the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever chance." "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said few hundred pounds.' Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a get her out of the way." large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a your billet.' yards of it?' Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to "I shall be delighted." My friend smiled. out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from "Witness: It was. "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are residence of the great financier. in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even back to my heart. While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not the inner apartment." at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A