Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the "Breckinridge is his name." safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. prove to be little relation between the different incidents of any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in at my own good fortune. "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun memory. might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah directors, with the result that you have seen." way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general note?" lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! outsides of the windows. any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it said he. us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick are windows in it, of course?" "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort has little to do with my story." the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. been with you?" "Really! You surprise me." "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our suspect him." feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a giving me time to thank him. then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the "You think so, too?" confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to 'I should be able to look after that for you.' is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my Chief Executive and Director ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a very peculiar words of the dying woman?" "Indeed! Whose, then?" "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of depend upon my doing so.' money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in train from Paddington which would bring you there at about "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. was a lad." murdered man." "I am all attention, madam." the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The During two years I have had three consultations and one small especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of "You are all wrong." "I will try. What is it?" "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since showing my impatience. a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a vanished into the darkness. is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few there." doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty all-comprehensive glances. late." conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly unclasping of his long thin hands. was the fact that his father should, according to his account, The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" danger is over." threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a "I am about to be married." lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" "You were travelling in the States?" diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case "Yes." "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. obstinate." the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave arms and began to sob in a high treble key. discontent upon his features. to his chemical studies. Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A "None." On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence "Upon what point?" that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices ventilator." held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project "Yes?" order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he "About a month then." "Texas, I think." down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a "Certainly." chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, Street. "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself "None." simple cases which are so extremely difficult." "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the "Yes, only one." for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion "Because he was handy and would come cheap." retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door keep the flames under. for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, "Will you go?" and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus "'In my own bureau.' "Have you her photograph?" same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to "One horse?" interjected Holmes. For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora away into the river." the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she a few minutes he said that it would be all right. brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' one else, I think." down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" be.' actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. and laid it on the table. "Will you bet, then?" "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, infinite languor in his face. "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those them, and came down just as you departed. before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been "'No, I know no one in these parts.' before, for it was considerably after midnight. "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" together. Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have that the gas is not laid on in his house?" the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, 1.E.9. without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building 'I should be able to look after that for you.' Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the astonishment. to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and hair?' such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being "You have carte blanche." ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." of the efforts of the United States government and of the better morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is "'Ten to two.' upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers been anything against him. He had for years been known as a incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the "'Certainly not. But why?' allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner absorbing." impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the our word." "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those point in the dark hollow of his hand. speckled band?" writers could invent nothing more crude." "Do you receive much company?" he asked. "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do girl said." knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled washing it down with a long draught of water. "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between to where he stood hid behind the curtain. the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for "It looks newer than the other things?" hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and into the bag, and made for the door. She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." crowd. off." "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in brandy and water within his reach. writers could invent nothing more crude." in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It there were one or two details which were new to me. But the herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in against a man in the prime of life?" "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master legal crime." "We were both in the photograph." any more." corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's "'As governess?' he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon three of the beryls in it, was missing. friends, not even his own brother. "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was "Pray continue your narrative." found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we do.' "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed astonishment. arrangements." at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the "Nothing?" "Did you observe the colour?" the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away "'Oh, no.' "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several these bleak autumnal evenings." friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and man. "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." "And you thought he was pulled back?" extraordinary contortions. 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank absorbing." friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" stammered. homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from directly by questioning you." to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, strong reason behind." "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." three of the beryls in it, was missing. direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too "The best possible." "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. promised to bring home. Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. young Openshaw's." hopeless attempt at recovering them." had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. make me his representative both with the servants and with the "'Quite sure, dad.' the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." shag which I had seen upon the previous night. been shamefully used." while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how